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RECOLLECTIONS 



ABRAHAM LANSING 



RECOLLECTIONS 



ABRAHAM LANSING 



EDITED BY 

CHARLES E. FITCH, L.H.D, 




PRIVATELY PRINTED 
1909 



.13 



THREE HUNDRED COPIES 

PRINTED FROM 

TYPE BY 







" Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, 
Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain, 
Awake but one and lo ! what myriads rise, 
Each stamps its image as the other flies." 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



i Biography 3 

11 Appreciations 13 

hi Letters 27 

iv Public Tributes 51 

v Speeches by Abraham Lansing 71 

vi Camp Albany. — Log Book 123 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING PAGE 

Abraham Lansing Frontispiece 

From a photograph by Pirie MacDonald, 1898 

John Lansing, Jr 4 

From a portrait now hanging in the Court of Appeals Room, State Capitol, Albany, N. Y. 

Abraham G. Lansing 6 

From a pastel made about 1830 

Abraham Yates, Jr 8 

From a portrait by Robert, now hanging in the Bar Association, New York City 

Christopher Y. Lansing 10 

From a photograph by Sterry about 1870 

Abraham Lansing 122 

From a photograph by Sterry about 1883 

Camp Albany on the Ristigouche River 124 

From a photograph 

Gaffing a Salmon 188 

From a photograph taken by Miss McAndrew in 1885 

Jock Scott Fly 266 



BIOGRAPHY 



BIOGRAPHY 

ABRAHAM LANSING, the third child and second son of 
l\. Christopher Yates and Caroline Thomas Lansing, was 
born February 27, 1835, at 368 North Market Street, now 515 
Broadway, Albany, N. Y., in a house built by his maternal 
grandfather, Abraham Yates, Jr., and of which Abraham 
Lansing was the owner at the time of his death. 

He always lived in Albany. He was of honorable and dis- 
tinguished lineage. The Lansings are traced back to Fred- 
erick, of the town of Hassel, in the Province of Overyssel, in 
Holland, as ancestor. Three of his sons and two daughters 
arrived in New Amsterdam in 1680. The line descends 
through Gerrit, the second son of Frederick, his son Jacob 
and Jacob's son, Gerrit J., to Abraham G., the paternal 
grandfather of Abraham, who was a life-long resident of 
Albany, born in 1756 and died in 1834, a man of promi- 
nence, Surrogate of Albany County from 1787 to 1808, and 
State Treasurer from 1803 to 1809 and from 1810 to 181 2. 
His brother, John Lansing, Jr., born in Albany in 1754 and 
dying in 1829, had an illustrious public career. He studied 
law in New York with James Duane, was Military Secretary 
to General Philip Schuyler, Member of the Fourth, Fifth, 
Sixth and Seventh New York Assemblies, Representative in 
Congress under the Articles of Confederation, Speaker of the 



4 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Assembly in 1786, member of the Commission to Make Final 
Division of the Territorial Claims of New York and Massa- 
chusetts, Mayor of Albany, and again Member of Assembly 
in 1786, Representative in Congress under the Confederation 
and Delegate to the Convention which framed the Federal 
Constitution in 1787, member of the State Convention which 
ratified the same in 1788, Justice and Chief Justice of the 
State Supreme Court, Chancellor of the Court of Chancery, 
Regent of the University, Presidential Elector and nominee 
for Governor. 

Abraham Yates, Jr., whose daughter Susanna married Abra- 
ham G. Lansing, was born in 1724 and died in 1796. He was 
eminent in his day, being Sheriff of Albany County, Deputy to 
the Provincial Convention of New York and Deputy and 
President pro tern, of the First, Second and Third and Presi- 
dent of the Fourth Provincial Congress, member of the First 
and Second Councils of Safety of New York, member of the 
Committee which, in 1777, framed the first Constitution of 
the State, member of the New York Council of Appointment 
in 1777 and 1784, Delegate to the Continental Congress in 
1787 and 1788, and Mayor of Albany from 1789 to 1796. 
His portrait, by Robert, was presented by Abraham Lansing 
to the New York City Bar Association. 

Abraham G. Lansing had a large family, nine of his sons 
reaching maturity, and four daughters. One of these, Gerrit 
Yates, was Regent and Vice-Chancellor of the University of 
the State of New York, Judge of the Court of Probate, Clerk 
of the Assembly and a Representative in Congress from 1831 
to 1837. 





^C^^7^^<^Z^ *0&&Z*r 



BIOGRAPHY 5 

Christopher Yates Lansing, the father of Abraham, never 
held official position, except as Private Secretary to Governor 
Joseph C. Yates, when he was a very young man, but he was 
a learned, diligent and upright counselor-at-law, and died in 
1872, at the age of seventy-six, universally respected, after a 
life of industry, usefulness and unsullied purity. He was 
devoted to his children, inculcating them with religious prin- 
ciples which had marked and beneficent influence upon their 
lives. 

Abraham's maternal family was also one of signal worth. 
His ancestor, in this line, was William Thomas, of Welsh 
extraction, one of the "Merchant Adventurers," who pro- 
moted the enterprise of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims, and com- 
ing later to Plymouth became one of its Assistant Governors, 
being so chosen in 1642 and annually re-elected until his 
death at Marshfield in 1657, at the age of ninety years. The 
estate at Marshfield, long known as the "Daniel Webster 
Place," the largest and finest grant ever made by the colony, 
attests both his importance and the esteem in which he was 
held. His son, Captain Nathaniel, served in King Philip's 
War in 1675. The latter's son, Nathaniel, was, for many years, 
Judge of Probate for the county of Plymouth and Judge of 
the Supreme Court from 1712 to 1718. His son, William, was 
a physician of extensive practice in Plymouth for more than 
half a century, was born in Boston in 1718, and died in 1802. 
He was of the medical staff in the hazardous and successful 
exploit against Louisburg in 1745, and was at Crown Point in 
1753. He was a zealous patriot during the war for American 
independence. After the battle of Lexington, in 1775. he 



6 ABRAHAM LANSING 

immediately, with his four sons, Joshua, Joseph, John and 
Nathaniel, joined the first-formed revolutionary corps. The 
first named of these was Aide-de-camp to Gen. John Thomas 
in the expedition to Canada in 1776, and, after the peace, was 
a Representative and Senator in the Massachusetts Legislature, 
and, from 1792 until his death in 1821, was Judge of Probate 
for Plymouth county. Joseph and John continued in the 
service during the war, the first as captain of artillery, and the 
second in the medical staff. John subsequently established 
himself as a physician at Poughkeepsie, in this State, and died 
in 1 81 8. He married Gertrude Fonda, in 1797, and was the 
father of Caroline, the mother of Abraham. 

Abraham Lansing received his preliminary education in a 
select school in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and in the 
Albany Academy. He entered Williams College, then under 
the presidency of Mark Hopkins, as a sophomore, in 1852, and 
was graduated therefrom, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, 
in 1855. The class was notable for the achievements of its 
members in after life, embracing two United States Senators, 
two representatives in the lower house of Congress, seven 
doctors of divinity, four doctors of law, four college professors 
and others who attained distinction in their various professions. 
Among these Lansing was highly esteemed for the dignity and 
refinement of his character and for his scholarly and literary 
acquirements. Among his other college honors, it may be 
mentioned that he was a speaker at the prize rhetorical exhi- 
bition in 1854, his subject being "Architecture," president in 
his senior year of the "Philotechnian," one of the two literary 
societies, and an orator at commencement, the title of his 





^i^W^^^,. 



BIOGRAPHY 7 

address being "Bubbles." He was also a member of the 
Kappa Alpha, the first of Greek-letter fraternities founded 
upon a social basis and still a leading one in several American 
universities. His name is perpetuated in his Alma Mater 
through the "Abraham Lansing Scholarship," established by 
his wife in 1906. 

After leaving college, he studied law in his father's office 
and in the Albany Law School (Union University), from 
which institution he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws 
in December, 1856, being at the same time admitted to the bar 
of the State of New York, and began the practice of his pro- 
fession, being actively engaged therein until his death, and 
receiving a number of public appointments in connection 
therewith. He was admitted to practice in the United States 
Courts in 1867. He was City Attorney of Albany in 1868. 
He was the first reporter of the decisions of the Supreme 
Court, as authorized by law, serving as such from 1869 to 
1873, when he resigned the office. Seven volumes known as 
"Lansing's Reports," testify to his legal knowledge, capacity 
and fidelity to his trust. From 1876 to 1878 he was Corpora- 
tion Counsel of Albany. During nearly the whole of his forty 
years of practice as a lawyer he was the senior of the firm of 
A. and W. Lansing, the second member being a younger 
brother, William. His standing at the bar throughout, as 
able, safe and conscientious in counsel, skillful and persuasive 
in the trial of causes, and sound and resourceful in argument 
before the appellate tribunals, finds expression in the records 
of the courts and especial appreciation and esteem in the 
tributes to his memory by the leaders of his profession at its 



8 ABRAHAM LANSING 

meeting immediately after his death, and reproduced in this 
volume. 

Outside of the duties, personal and official, which his pro- 
fession imposed upon him, State preferment sought him and 
found him equipped for and diligent in the discharge of its 
responsibilities. In 1874, owing to the temporary disability of 
the State Treasurer, Governor Dix appointed Mr. Lansing 
as Acting Treasurer, a position he filled for several months 
with entire fidelity and acceptance, the appointment being a 
signal evidence of the confidence reposed in him by the chief 
executive, whose political faith was other than his. In the 
summer of 1879 he was a delegate from the American Com- 
mittee for the Codification of the Law of Nations to the con- 
ference of the general body in London. In the fall of 1881 
he accepted the Democratic nomination for State Senator 
and was elected by a majority largely in excess of the average 
party vote. During his senatorial term, 1882-3, he took an 
active part in legislation. He was chairman of the important 
Committee on Railroads and a member of the Finance Com- 
mittee, and was largely influential in the creation of the State 
Railroad Commission. He procured a new charter for Albany, 
had charge of the measure which provided for the reservation 
and preservation of the State Park at Niagara Falls, and 
inspired the acts for the remodelling of the scientific depart- 
ments of the State and the placing of the capitol and other 
State buildings under the control of a single superintendent. 
He was not a frequent participator in the debates of the 
Senate, but when he did speak it was to the purpose, clearly 
and convincingly. He retired from the Senate with the esteem 



BIOGRAPHY 9 

of his associates and public recognition of his capacity and 
integrity. 

In the business development and eleemosynary activities of 
the city he was deeply interested and was officially identified 
with many of the organizations for their promotion. He was 
long the attorney and counselor and was for a number of 
years the senior director of the National Commercial Bank. 
He was a member of the Board of Park Commissioners of 
Albany, a trustee of the Albany Savings Bank, a trustee of 
the Albany Academy, a governor of the Albany Hospital, a 
trustee of the Albany Medical College, of the Albany Rural 
Cemetery and of the Dudley Observatory — all of which reveal 
his quality as a citizen, his concern for local enterprises and 
charities and the reliance of the community upon him, as 
evinced by the demand for such constant and varied service in 
its behalf. He was also a founder and one of the first Board 
of Trustees and of the first House Committee of the Fort 
Orange Club, the leading social organization of Albany, the 
charter and constitution of which he drafted, and he was a life 
member of the State Geological Society, a member of the 
Century Association, the Holland Society, the University 
Club, the Bar Association of the City of New York and the 
Albany Burns Club. Nearly all the civic, social and charitable 
bodies with which he was affiliated adopted resolutions expres- 
sive of their sense of loss on the occasion of his death. 

His public addresses, although not numerous, were dis- 
tinguished for felicity and clearness of diction and for appro- 
priateness to the occasion which inspired them. 

In politics he was a Democrat. In part his political faith 



io ABRAHAM LANSING 

was doubtless due to heredity and early environment, for the 
Lansings and the families affiliated with them had been of the 
Jeffersonian School and eminent in public affairs as already 
indicated, but, through his own study and reflection, he 
reached well-settled convictions concerning the functions of 
government, which confirmed the ancestral inclination and 
made him consistent in his adhesion to Democratic principles 
throughout his life. He cannot be said to have been an active 
politician, but he was at one time chairman of the Democratic 
Committee, and accepted honorable positions at the hands of 
his party. His political career was unsullied and loyal to the 
public welfare. 

He found his recreation in the fields and by the streams in 
communion with nature. More than all else, he enjoyed his 
vacations in the Ristigouche country. He kept a log of his 
experiences therein, a portion of which is here presented. 

He died at his home in Albany, October 4, 1899. His 
devoted wife survives. He was married November 26, 1873, 
to Catherine, the only daughter of General Peter Gansevoort 
and granddaughter of General Peter Gansevoort, Jr., of Fort 
Stanwix fame. Their home was the fine old Gansevoort man- 
sion on Washington avenue, whose traditional hospitality was 
by them constantly maintained. 

The foregoing is simply a sketch of an able lawyer, an 
upright public servant, a good citizen, a cultivated gentleman, 
courteous and considerate in all the relations of life, a lover of 
the beautiful in art and nature, and one whose memory is very 
precious to those who had the privilege of knowing him. 




C^u^^^cf 



APPRECIATIONS 



APPRECIATIONS 



BY THE HON. CHARLES ANDREWS, LL. D. 

I FIRST became acquainted with the late Abraham Lansing 
in 1870, and from that time until his death it was my 
privilege to enjoy his friendship, to meet him in the discharge 
of his professional duties and at his hospitable home. The- 
social life of Albany during my residence there took its tone 
from members of families whose ancestors for generations 
had been citizens of Albany and from men of distinction in 
Church and State who had adopted Albany as their home. 
The social standards were elevated, pure and inspiring. It 
was not alone the refinements which come from social contact 
which attracted the observer, but associated with these was 
an atmosphere which can be felt only where the higher things 
of the intellect and of the spirit are given their appropriate 
recognition. 

In this society Mr. Lansing took his place, not only as the 
representative of an honored ancestry, but from those per- 
sonal qualities which adorn human nature and demand recog- 
nition independently of adventitious circumstances. He had 
the high breeding and courtesy which accompanies a simple, 
genuine character. He loved books and his knowledge of the 
best literature was wide and discriminating. He enjoyed the 



i 4 ABRAHAM LANSING 

world of nature, and the woods, the fields and the streams 
were to him a source of enduring pleasure. His life was quiet 
and unostentatious. He held his friends with a firm grasp and 
none who became his friends ever released their hold upon 
him. Others are more familiar with his life as a citizen. 
I know that he took an active interest in public affairs and 
in undertakings having for their object the religious, educa- 
tional and civic interests of Albany. With his work as a 
lawyer before the court of which I was a member, I was more 
familiar. He came to the argument of cases with thorough 
and conscientious preparation and his arguments were clear, 
logical and usually convincing. The court accepted without 
reserve any statement of fact which he made, and I venture to 
say that he never made to any court any statement which he 
did not believe to be true. 

Mr. Lansing was a man of high ideals, of pure character, 
a good citizen, a lovable friend. He was true in all the rela- 
tions of life. I mourn his loss and cherish his memory. 



BY THE REV. WALTON W. BATTERSHALL, D. D. 

To the memorial minute presented to and adopted by the 
Vestry of St. Peter's Church in the city of Albany, on 
Wednesday, October 4, 1899, I beg to add a word to which 
I may give a more personal accent. 

The nine years since his death have only deepened my esti- 
mate of his fine and noble personality and of all that he was 
to Albany, to St. Peter's Church and to myself. 



APPRECIATIONS 15 

As I write, the deep-set eyes in the picture of his strong and 
refined face, alongside of the faces of Justice Peckham and 
Judge Andrews, on the wall space in my study above my 
books, look down upon me with all the kindliness and stead- 
fastness which lit up those eyes in the days of old that are so 
dear and they fill my thought with gracious memories. As I 
gaze upon his picture, I recall a scene in the recent history of 
St. Peter's which has left upon my mind and heart a vivid 
picture of his presence and the echo of his voice. It was on 
that day when we gave benediction to the Pott's Memorial 
Rectory, and I can see him now as he stood then, midway on 
the stairway of the central hall, while men and women of St. 
Peter's crowded the first and second floors of the new rectory, 
listening to the thoughtful and graceful words with which he 
expressed the congratulations of the hour. 

Others can give more significant testimony to his eminence 
in his profession and at least equal testimony to the high pur- 
pose and consistency of his life among men, but I may be 
permitted to bear witness to the more intimate traits of his 
personality. 

In a peculiar degree he was a man who had the instinct and 
genius of friendship. His nature was rich in the affections 
and loyalties that shape and weld "the hooks of steel" by 
which the souls of men are drawn together and, whatever the 
strain of circumstances, are held together. In all this, there 
was something finer and deeper than the urbanity of the gen- 
tleman and the good nature of the comrade. He was a man 
of thought, self-control and poise, who looked beyond the 
veils of things visible and provable to the deeper and larger 



16 ABRAHAM LANSING 

things believable, in which lie the strongest roots of character 
and conduct. His whole life in his home, his work and his 
religion were built on fidelities, and it is in fidelity to my esti- 
mate and love of him that I write this word. 



BY WILLIAM P. PRENTICE, LL. D. 

The life of Abraham Lansing was singularly even and for- 
tunate. He lived and died in Albany, N. Y., as his forebears 
had done; and, like them, gathered civic honors and distinc- 
tion, as it were, in a regular course, and in a measure propor- 
tionate to his advantages and to his time. Good quality and 
fine bearing go far in the day and stay to the end with such 
men as our friend Abraham Lansing, making life's pathway 
smoother and fairer to every one reached by them. They 
were traits in a personality and character, honored and trusted 
to an unusual degree throughout his career, and gave force 
and effect to his intellect, education, industry and work which 
were also factors in his success. This was well earned, with- 
out enmity and well used. His commerce with men was most 
pleasant and never would he do a wanton injury. One hesi- 
tates to apply that overworked word among us, a gentleman, 
but you could define it by him, as we knew him. One of the 
best of citizens and friends, "nisi perversus maxime quisque 
ilium non deligeret modo sed amaret." 

Tall and handsome, graceful in figure and action, with blue 
eyes, kind expression and pleasing voice, having always a 
certain reserve and poise, his figure is before us. as though 



APPRECIATIONS 17 

the seven years and a half since the day of his death, October 
4, 1899, had faded away. He was a good comrade and com- 
panion. Many sum up virtues in saying one is a good fisher- 
man or angler. He was that, too; fond of the country and of 
life. He was good in speech, talked well, was restful and 
aidful in conversation. Some of us were his schoolmates, 
classmates in college and fellow-townsmen, and this is our 
recollection. 

He was born February 27, 1835, and had part of his early 
training at a boarding-school in Berkshire county, Massachu- 
setts, within the country, radius and impressions of Williams 
College, whither afterwards his course turned. The years 
preparatory to college were spent at the Albany Boys' 
Academy, a long-established and well-known institution, 
whose principals had ever been successful masters of wide 
and approved reputation. Such were at its head in his time, 
in succession, Dr. Campbell, Dr. Cook and the Rev. W. A. 
Miller, with all of whom the boys in the higher department 
were in close touch and had from them personal direction in 
their studies and guidance. Especially was this gainful from 
the manners and gentle, genial sway of Mr. Miller, a highly 
cultured and scholarly man of some worldly experience. He 
led his pupils with persuasive and inciting sympathy to attack 
their appointed tasks with vigor, having some perception of 
their objects and occasional glimpses, at least, of a larger field 
than the landscape and horizon before them in their books. 
Of such heaven-born teachers, Lansing was soon to know 
another, the Rev. Dr. Mark Hopkins, the president of his 
college. They are of two kinds. One prepares the youth to 



iS ABRAHAM LAXSIXG 

think, oft-times with them and as they do; the other makes 
their students individuals, to think of their own motion, 
generally from right premises and in the right way, but at all 
events they must think. Of this second order was Dr. Hop- 
kins, one of the greatest men. Education seemed to begin 
anew under him. 

The scheme of education which prevailed, the same in 
academy and in college up to the senior year, termed old 
fashioned now, was to one purpose, to make self-reliant, prac- 
tical men. able to take and improve their places in the outside 
world, with principles and not merely selfish motives. First 
and last it was of training and discipline. With Latin. Greek 
and mathematics, which were as the three R's in primary 
schools. and English, were included orators* and composition, 
not lost arts then, and occupying generally the Friday af- 
ternoons ; also debating societies were for out of school 
exercises and diversion. In college two literary societies flour- 
ished to the same end and college politics centered about them. 
It was not necessary to arrange for play further than to 
furnish a playground. Youthful spirits and energy sufficed 
for all the rest and they never failed or flagged. It may be 
said for the graduate generally that he was able to walk alone 
and to make good way. But. as to electives and "the exploded 
meteor' 7 theory of a curriculum, it may be said that the col- 
legian knew nothing and at no time, unless possibly in cat- 
echism class, or in class prayer meeting, would he meet the 
doctrine of election until he came to choose his profession and 
set out for himself. 

But. though all were on the same vovasre. there was room. 



APPRECIATIONS 19 

and there remained the same everlasting diversities of man- 
kind, in the young and in the old, as the race has ever known. 
Our academy student was fitted at the age of sixteen for 
college, and entered, in 1852, the sophomore class of Wil- 
liams, which graduated in 1855 with fifty-five members; thirty 
had dropped by the way. Lansing took the A. B. degree and 
had sufficient rank for a commencement oration. 

The three years of college were not of pampered luxury. 
Chapel bell had rung at five-thirty summer mornings and at 
quarter past six in the winter, when sometimes there would 
be two feet of snow in the paths. One recitation was before 
breakfast, by candle light in the dark season, and if the mon- 
itors had not their stove fires started early, the rooms were 
cold. A second recitation was in the forenoon and a third 
in the afternoon, each lasting about an hour. Breakfast was 
at half-past seven, dinner one o'clock, tea or supper at six, 
and one had to be prompt, as the tables were not kept long 
waiting. The evening, after eight o'clock, was supposed to 
be devoted to study and lights should be out early. The 
vacations were nominally of three months, six weeks in the 
summer and early fall, the winter one taking in, if one had 
excuse, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and beyond, to 
enable some of the students to teach school, and three weeks 
or a month in the spring. Commencement was in the early 
days of August, and preceded by the two weeks of senior 
vacation. 

Lansing bore his part in all the college life decorously 
enough not to be called up for infraction of the rules. These 
were severe, but, like the Sibylline books, most of them lost 



20 ABRAHAM LANSING 

or unknown. He belonged to one of the older secret socie- 
ties, the Kappa Alpha, and of the literary societies to the 
Philotechnian, of which he was president for a term in his 
senior year, but he was not particularly or especially promi- 
nent. He had few intimates, but a large circle of acquain- 
tances and friends. In one winter vacation it was said he 
taught school, and with the usual enjoyment on both sides 
of the country district school. These are pleasant memories 
to those of us who remain, but far removed, of a different 
century and an age unknown to the university men of to-day. 

In the fall of his graduating year, 1855, Lansing began the 
study of law in the office of his father, Christopher Y. Lan- 
sing, Esq., and also at the Albany Law School. He finished 
the course, took the usual degree and, in 1856, was admitted 
to the bar. 

The dean of the law school was Amos Dean, who had con- 
siderable practice as a referee, often appointed and chosen in 
difficult cases, and widely recognized as methodical, careful 
and learned. He was also an author of some fame, both in 
law and history. The distinguished jurists Judges Ira Harris 
and Amasa J. Parker were also professors and lecturers, and 
they read on equity, criminal law and practice. Judge Har- 
ris had renown in pleadings, Judge Parker in criminal law. 
Judge Harris was the United States Senator in 1861 and dur- 
ing the war. 

The young lawyer might well have repeated to himself the 
saying of Lord Coke, "Of worldly blessings I account it not 
the least, that in the beginning of my study of the laws of 
this realm, the courts of justice, both of equity and of law, 



APPRECIATIONS 21 

were furnished with men of excellent gravity and wisdom. 
* * * Of these reverend judges and others, their asso- 
ciates, I must ingeniously confess that I learnt many things." 
Similar tribute Lansing was accustomed to bear to these great 
men, who fortunately for him presided over his cunabula 
legis (cradles of the law). 

Now equipped for his profession, Lansing soon took up its 
work in Albany. When his brother William, of the Class of 
1857 of Williams College, had completed his studies, they 
formed a partnership for the general practice of law. It 
became evident, without either intermissions or delays, that 
Lansing, in all his associations, merited a high rank among 
his fellow-men. In 1868 he was City Attorney. In 1869 he 
was appointed Reporter of the Supreme Court, and he pub- 
lished the first seven volumes of the series of "Supreme Court 
Reports." He was a Democrat in politics, and at one time 
at the head of his party's County Committee. In 1874, under 
a Republican administration, he was appointed, by Governor 
Dix, Acting State Treasurer during the illness and incapacity 
of the incumbent of the office. In 1876 he was made Corpo- 
ration Counsel of Albany and in 1882 he was elected to the 
State Senate by more than a party vote. In that body he 
had charge of important legislation and the title of Senator 
clung to him long after he retired. He occupied many posi- 
tions of responsibility and trust. No name was more fre- 
quently to be found on the boards of commissioners, 
governors, directors and trustees of the large institutions of 
the city than his. Thus he served for a term on the parks, 
and was brought into the direction of banks, of the Boys' 



22 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Academy, of the Girls' Academy, of the Hospital, the Rural 
Cemetery, the Observatory and others, where he assiduously 
performed his duties, and in some of these places he remained 
many years. Take him all in all, he was a fine man, of strong 
character, whom it honored every one to appreciate and 
respect. 

BY BENJAMIN W. JOHNSON 

My acquaintance with Senator Abraham Lansing dates 
from the time of his election as Trustee of the Albany Savings 
Bank, December 21, 1881, but it was not until nearly the 
close of his service with this institution that opportunity was 
afforded me to know and appreciate those qualities of mind 
and heart which so endeared him to every one with whom he 
came in contact. 

The first impression given by his dignified and reserved 
manner was that he was cold and uninterested in those out- 
side of his immediate circle of friends. It did not take long 
to change this estimate when meeting him either socially or 
in the course of business, when it was evident that he was full 
of interest and sympathy and helpfulness towards his fellow- 
men and his kind and courteous greeting was something 
always to be remembered. He was firm and uncompromising 
in his convictions of right, never swerving from his position 
unless convinced that he was in error, and then he was quick 
to acknowledge his mistake. 

To the Board of Trustees he not only added dignity and 
distinction, but was a helpful and conservative force in its 



APPRECIATIONS 23 

deliberations. It was, however, in connection with the me- 
morials which he prepared on the occasion of removal by 
death of some of his associates that his warm human sym- 
pathy, his keen discernment of character and his mastery of 
our language was evinced. There was never any fulsome 
praise, such as is too often characteristic, but an appreciation 
of every quality of his departed friend which was worthy of 
record and a message of comfort and helpfulness to those most 
nearly concerned. 

BY THE HON. ROBERT C. PRUYN 

As my kinsman and very dear friend, who was always a 
courteous gentleman and a charming companion, I often speak 
of Mr. Lansing as one of the old school we see so little of 
nowadays and miss so much in our hurried life. 

As I am writing in my office, at the Commercial Bank, I 
cannot help but think of Mr. Lansing in his business life, 
where I knew him probably better than almost any one, for, 
during fifteen years of my presidency and until his death, he 
was the counsel of the bank. He was constant and untiring 
in his loyalty, patient and resourceful in difficulties, just and 
yet charitable and sympathetic, and altogether, one of the best 
Directors the bank has ever had. Mr. Lansing's conservatism 
was so well known that many people have been surprised 
when I have told them that he was one of the most progres- 
sive men connected with our institution during the period of 
its upbuilding. He always encouraged me towards broader 
ideas and improved methods, and I feel deeply indebted to 



24 ABRAHAM LANSING 

him, personally, and think that I express the feelings of all 
who were associated with him when I say that I believe this 
institution owes much to him as one of its ablest and most 
faithful friends. 



LETTERS 



LETTERS 



Las Cruces, N. Mexico, Oct. 29, 1899. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing : 

Having been exiled to this desert by my physician on ac- 
count of obdurate throat trouble, I only learned a few days 
ago, by letter from our classmate, Fitch, of Rochester, of your 
bereavement. This morning I have the clippings forwarded 
from New York, which you were good enough to send me, 
acquainting me with the grief of his cotemporaries and their 
estimation of the virtues of their associate. 

I remember well the first time I saw Mr. Lansing — one 
September day at Williamstown, near half a century ago; a 
tall, slender, graceful, pallid youth, holding a sun umbrella 
over an aged man whom I supposed to be his father, though I 
did not know his name, as they walked slowly up the western 
slope toward the old "West College." I see one of the 
obituaries says he entered sophomore in 1852; I had thought 
we were freshmen together, but in any event, we were class- 
mates and became inseparable friends. 

My intimacies in this world have been few with men, and 
my affection for him was the strongest I have ever known. 
As I recall him now from the dim shadows of that early time. 



28 ABRAHAM LANSING 

his nature seems to me the gentlest and purest and noblest of 
them all. 

Shortly after graduation, I came west and was lost in the 
obscure life of the frontier, so that our acquaintance ended, 
but I have always remembered him with the sincerest friend- 
ship. His departure breaks the most enduring tie that held 
me to the past ; and the hereafter can have no greater felicity 
than the pleasure of meeting him again. 

Very respectfully, 

John J. Ingalls. 



Nov. 24, 1899. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing : 

I am obliged to you for the expressions in your note. In 
the death of your husband, I felt the loss of a friend whose 
intercourse was always a source of pleasure to me during my 
stay in Albany. His loss to you must have been most severe, 
and you have the merited sympathy of all your friends and of 
those who knew him. 

Pure in life, of high attainments, lovable in character and 

affable in his relations to others, possessing the respect and 

confidence of his associates and of the public, for whom he 

so often and ably worked, his loss is a great one and must be 

felt more generally than usual. I miss him, and shall miss 

him, as the valued friend and the associate in many pleasant 

reunions. , 7 . , 

Very sincerely yours, 

J. C. Gray. 



LETTERS 29 

Albany, January 1, 1900. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing : 

At my New Year's Eve supper, at which your dear husband 
and my valued friend had been so often the welcome guest, I 
read the enclosed lines, which I now enclose to you. 

Believe me to be, with very sincere regard, 

Your friend, 

J. C. Gray. 

IFn fl&emorfam 

Abraham Lansing 

(obiit October, 1899.) 

Cherished hopes, which tinged our friendship 

With the light of coming years, 

Like the lovely morning vapors, 

Shone for us, then changed to tears. 

But the soul exhaled to Heaven 

Floats above our cares and fears, 

And the world beyond is brighter, 

Where no mist obscures the sight. 

Informed in mind, of winning grace, 

We have loved him as we might. 

And the mem'ry of his sweetness 

Cheers a lonely home and hearth. 

For the heart now sad and restless, 

Pray God's aid the coming year ! 

New Year's Eve, 1899- 1900. 



30 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Albany, Oct. 4, 1899. 
The Ten Eyck. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

I realize nothing can be said at this time that will afford 
you the slightest consolation, but I beg to express my pro- 
found and tender sympathy. 

I would I might do something to help you bear this great 
sorrow, but the pity of it is that all human aid is impotent. 

May God comfort and keep you! 

Yours ever sincerely, 

Edward T. Bartlett. 
Mrs. Abraham Lansing. 



New Brunswick, Oct. 9, 1899. 
Dear Mrs. Lansing : 

Several days ago I saw a notice in the New York papers 
of the death of Mr. Lansing; but I have not yet heard any- 
thing concerning the causes which led to this most lamentable 
event. I need not tell you, dear Mrs. Lansing, how this 
death of my old friend has shocked me. It was one of the 
principal things in our delightful residence in Albany to have 
always counted yourself and Mr. Lansing among our warmest 
friends. He was so true and sincere, so ready and efficient 
to help his friends, so sound in his judgment of men and 
things, that he was the man above all others to whom one 
would turn in any question of doubt or difficulty. How many 



LETTERS 31 

times I have sought him out and found satisfaction in his 
kind and sensible advice ! His experience in public affairs, his 
high-toned standard of action, his amiable and persuasive 
personality made him everywhere loved and esteemed. Albany 
will be to me a different place, wanting in one of its most 
attractive features, now that his engaging presence is no 
longer there. 

Dear Mrs. Lansing, after I have read over these lines that 
I have written, it seems almost selfish to dwell thus upon the 
loss of others, and forget your deep and overwhelming sense 
of bereavement. What is all this sorrow of others compared 
with your unutterable loss? You, who have parted with your 
best and closest friend! Your one reliance in every circum- 
stance, the joy of your life and the sympathizer in every sor- 
row! 

What can we say that can comfort or reassure you? If it 
is any mitigation of your grief to know that we sympathize 
with you and mourn the death of one whom we loved and 
admired, of that we can confidently assure you. 

Mrs. Murray, who joins me in affectionate regard for the 
memory of dear Mr. Lansing, joins me also in love and sym- 
pathy to you in this your sorrowful bereavement. May God 
bless and comfort you, dear Mrs. Lansing, and may the mem- 
ory of the good man who has been your companion so long, 
continue to bedew your solitary years with a lasting bene- 
diction ! 

Very sincerely yours. 

David Murray. 
Mrs. A. Lansing, Albany. 



32 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Bishop's House, Albany, N. Y. 
Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

I have come back here only for one night to find that the 
shadow of the great sorrow has fallen upon you. I am obliged 
to be away from Albany to-morrow and to-day so that I 
cannot come in person to assure you of my very true sym- 
pathy. So I hope you will allow me as one who has had share 
in the joys and sorrows of your life to tell you how truly I 
feel for you and pray God to bless and comfort you. 

Very faithfully, your friend, 

Wm. Croswell Doane. 
Oct. 4, 1899. 



New York. Oct. 4. 1899. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

I was much moved and affected by reading in the papers, 
while on my way here, of the death of Mr. Lansing. Since I 
saw him in the hospital I have thought that this might happen, 
but I have hoped that there might be a restoration to health 
and that he might be long with us. I first knew Mr. Lansing 
familiarly and well in 1882 when he was in the Senate and I 
in the Assembly. Since then I have met him and been asso- 
ciated with him in a business way. I had learned to love him 
as a friend as well as to respect him as a citizen and a lawyer. 
It may be grateful to you that I recall what Daniel Manning 
once said to me. "It is worth while to get into politics and 



LETTERS 33 

to be in politics if only to be associated with such a man as 
Abraham Lansing." 

I shall consider my acquaintance with Mr. Lansing as one 
of the pleasant episodes of my life. But in saying all this I 
say nothing to lighten the burden of grief that you must bear 
alone. I can say that I sympathize with you, but all that I can 
say means nothing but words — words — mere words. 

My dear Mrs. Lansing, believe me that I mean, though I 
cannot say, more than words. It may seem to you perfunctory 
for me to say that you may command me if I can be of service 
to you, yet what more can I say or do? 

We need not pray for the repose of his soul, for he is for- 
ever at rest. If at rest without knowledge of the past we 
cannot help it, but still he is at rest. If he lies in another and 
an eternal world, you can look forward to a happy reunion 
with him, and in the other world you can be sure that his 
works do follow him. I sympathize with you and wish I could 
say words to comfort you, but words are merely words. 

With heartfelt sympathy, sincerely yours, 

C. E. Patterson. 



Dudley Observatory, Oct. 4, 1899. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing : 

Mrs. Boss joins me in heartfelt condolence with you in 
the great loss you have experienced to-day. Mr. Lansing's 
death will be felt bv the whole communitv in which he was 



34 ABRAHAM LANSING 

held in the highest esteem, as I have had frequent occasion 
to know. 

I have heard almost daily reports as to the progress of his 
illness, and, therefore, I was not wholly unprepared for the 
sad news to-day. 

I wish to assure you that I feel Mr. Lansing's death as a 
personal loss, and while I have secluded myself in my work 
for the past few years, the result has been to have always with 
me a keen appreciation and gratitude as to the friends, like 
Mr. Lansing, who have done so much to help this institution 
and so much to make my life pleasant. 

I fervently hope that you will find strength and consolation 
to enable you to bear up under your sad bereavement. 

Your sincere friend, 

Lewis Boss. 



Loomis Hill Farm, 

Onondaga, Oct. 15, 1899. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing : 

I thank you sincerely for sending me the tributes of the 
press and of various organizations with which he was asso- 
ciated, of the dear one who has gone. They are appreciative 
of the public work which he did, and reflect the high esteem 
in which he was held by his fellow citizens; but they cannot 
tell how tenderly he was beloved by those who were privileged 
to know him well. I can truly say that it has not been my lot 



LETTERS 35 

to know a truer, a more honorable or gentler spirit than his. 
There come to me many dear memories of my earlier associa- 
tion with him; of our college class-mates, he was by far the 
most favored in form and features, and his outward graces 
were but the index of the gracious soul within. We all loved 
him. I have been able to follow his career in later years, and 
have noted with pride the public honors which have so justly 
been bestowed upon him. I have rejoiced at his success, but 
it is only that which I predicted in the college days, now over 
forty years ago. He has been manly, courteous, generous 
throughout, and will be held in fond remembrance and highest 
regard by all who knew him. 

I cannot venture to intrude upon your grief, and offer 
unavailing consolation in your supreme loss. Words are weak 
at such a time and they seem to me impertinent. The heart of 
the stricken one knows its own anguish and there is no balm 
for the hurt even, I am constrained to say, in the promises of 
immortality and the hope of reunion. Time and the memories 
of the dear companionship can only bring relief. Be assured, 
however, my dear madam, that my sympathy with you is 
sincere and profound, because I believe I know something of 
him whom you have lost and how grievous must be that 
loss. 

We are to have a meeting of the Class of 1855 at Williams- 
town next June, alas, with sadly depleted ranks, but how we 
shall miss him, our latest lost and certainly among our best 

and fairest ones ! 

Most sincerely yours, 

Chas. E. Fitch. 



36 ABRAHAM LANSING 

My Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

I send to you the Minutes of the Meeting of the Bar of this 
County, held to take action upon the death of Mr. Lansing. 
I can assure you that a feeling of sincere regret was manifest 
at the great loss which the Bar has sustained, and those who 
spoke at the meeting gave voice to the unanimous sentiment 
of the lawyers of this County and the State. 

I desire to add my assurance of sympathy for you and my 
personal regards. 

Yours very truly. 

Wm. P. Rudd. 
November the 4th, 1899. 



Montreal, 23rd October, 1899. 
My Dear Olcott : 

I have been so completely upset by the news of the death of 
my dear friend Lansing, that I have hardly felt equal to the 
task of writing and thanking you for the papers containing 
accounts of his death, that you so kindly sent me. They were 
all read with sad interest. I had a letter from him, written 
by an amanuensis at Block Island, in which he told me how ill 
he had been ; but said that he was much better, and was hope- 
ful of soon being all right again. I fully intended writing him 
an answer at once., but I was unusually busy preparing for the 
opening of my Medical School and the intention escaped my 
memory. One evening, going over an accumulation of let- 



LETTERS $ 7 

ters, I came across his, and at once made a "memo" in pencil 
on my blotting pad, "write Lansing." Next morning I saw 
the announcement of his death in the "Montreal Gazette," and 
need hardly say how distressed I was. No death, among out- 
side friends, has for years so deeply affected me. His cour- 
tesy, his big heart, so constantly evinced to myself and the 
other members of our little club on the river, had so endeared 
him to me and to them that his memory will be lovingly 
cherished by us all. If I live to return next year to the river, 
his absence will indeed be a blank. 

Never having met his wife, will you convey to her my deep 
sympathy in her great bereavement? 

If you have time I would be glad to know the cause of his 
death, for when I bade him good bye on the Ristigouche, no 
thought of his death entered my mind. 

With kind regards, 

Sincerely yours, 

Francis W. Campbell. 
Dudley Olcott, Esq., Albany. 



115 Academy Street, 

POUGHKEEPSIE, Oct. 5, 1899. 

My Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

I have just read with surprise and sorrow in the "Albany 
Journal" of last evening the announcement of your husband's 
death. I had heard nothing of his illness, and was, therefore, 



38 ABRAHAM LANSING 

shocked by the tidings of his departure. I can scarcely credit 
the fact that he is no longer among the living. 

I knew Mr. Lansing when we were fellow students in 
Williams College, and held him in high esteem. That esteem 
was increased during my residence in Albany where I re- 
garded him as one of the capital's first citizens. I deplore, 
in connection with his death, the loss of a noble man and a 
true friend. 

To you the loss is irreparable, and in your grief you have 
my sincere sympathy. Words are empty in the presence of 
such a bereavement, but I cannot forbear to tell you that Mrs. 
Holmes and I both feel for you most deeply in your present 
distress. May the God of all comfort sustain and solace you ! 

With kindest regards and warmest sympathies in which 
Mrs. Holmes unites, I am 

Very sincerely yours, 

John McClellan Holmes. 



Morristown, N. J., Oct. 7, 1899. 
Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

Permit me to express my deep sympathy with you in the 
loss of your noble husband. It has not been my good fortune 
to enjoy his intimate companionship as did my brother, but I 
knew him well and recognized his thoroughly high type of 
character. 

I know that he never allowed even a shadow to come be- 



LETTERS 39 

tween him and the pursuit of all that is best and highest in 
our nature, and I am sure that there is no man who knew him 
who does not feel that the community has suffered the loss of 
a man who could always be relied upon as an earnest advocate 
of the best interests of humanity. 

Were there more like him, how vastly better the world 
would be! 

Sincerely yours, 

Wheeler H. Peckham. 



Rome, February 3, 1900. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing : 

You are very kind to write me at such length and with such 
candor. Though Mr. Lansing's nature was to me an almost 
unknown quantity, there was no one in Albany whom I 
wanted more to know; for there was no one whom I (in 
common with every Albanian) more thoroughly respected. 

Were there more men of his earnest and disinterested 
public spirit, we should not be behind the rest of the world in 
so many respects. It is indeed mysterious that such a man 
should be taken when there are so many useless idlers and self- 
seekers, who lower the standards of life and leave the world 
no whit better for having passed through it. That could not 
be said of Abraham Lansing by an enemy — if he ever had one. 
Yours, with great sympathy, 

Geo. Douglas Miller. 



4 o ABRAHAM LANSING 

397 State St., Albany, N. Y., October 6, 1899. 
Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

I want to tell you how fond I have always been of Mr. 
Lansing, how much I have admired his splendid manhood, 
which was so strong and yet so gentle; how I have always 
looked up to him as the embodiment of those qualities that 
go to make the noble, pure, dignified gentleman. When you 
said to me a few days ago, "He is a lovely man," I felt that 
you had completely and accurately described him. 

It is a personal loss to me that his elevating influence has 
ceased except as a memory which will be immortal. 

I am sorrowing with you, dear Mrs. Lansing, and pray God 
may help you. 

Faithfully yours, 

Grange Sard. 



Oct. 10, 1899. 
Saturday afternoon as I lay in bed, I took up the prayer 
book and followed the church service, so as to be with you in 
spirit. I will not say what a cruel disappointment it was to 
me that I could not go down to Albany, for I know that you 
understand that if it had been a possible thing for me, I would 
have done it. I cannot realize that our dear, dear friend has 
been taken from us and that we shall never look upon his like 
again, for he was the pattern of a noble, unselfish, kindly, 
strong Christian gentleman. Xo words are good enough to 



LETTERS 41 

tell of him or of his gentle spirit that thought no evil. I have 

read the different notices in the papers, and for once they do 

not say too much. , T . 

J \ ours always, » ,-y 



Southampton, L. I., Oct. 18, 1899. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing : 

I have been intending for some days past to send you my 
assurance of deepest sympathy with you in this dark hour of 
sadness. 

I had not heard of your husband's illness, so that the blow 
was doubly sharp. Mr. Lansing was one whom I greatly 
admired, and though we saw so little of each other, I greatly 
honored and esteemed him, as did all who knew him. None 
but those who have passed through these same deep waters of 
affliction can truly sympathize with you ; none other can know 
the loneliness and the loss of one upon whom we had always 
relied for advice and guidance. You, my dear friend, know 
whence alone help can come to you, and you will find that 
God's promises are sure. 

Words are useless in this sacred hour of grief, I know, and 
yet the sympathy of friends is sweet, so I have ventured to tell 
you how much I feel for you. 

Believe me, 

Yours lovingly, 

Justine V. R. Townsend. 



42 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Lansingburgh, Nov. 4, 1899. 
Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

Your kind letter, enclosing the newspaper notices concern- 
ing your dear husband, came to hand by due course of mail 
and were read with unusual interest, and I thank you for them. 
While my heart responded right heartily to all the "good 
words and comfortable words" that were written and spoken 
about the perfect and upright man who has melted from your 
embrace, I could not help thinking that "the half was not 
told," the half could not be told. He was a four-square man 
all along the way he went to enter in through the gates into 
the city that lieth four-square. He was, moreover, a man 
greatly beloved by all who knew him ; and I am only one of 
many who leaned on him and found in him "a friend that 
sticketh closer than a brother." When he was laid away in 
the place of peaceful rest I could not refrain from saying the 
last few farewell words, "out of the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaketh." 

I do not wonder that your "home is lonely enough with- 
out the dear man who was so true, so honest, so good," whose 
companionship was a constant benediction to you and whose 
presence would be brighter than the brightest sunshine in 
that shady place. But though your house is left so desolate, 
and you have been called to part with your nearest and dearest 
earthly friend, I think you ought to be a happy woman. You 
ought to be a happy woman because you had such a husband ; 
you ought to be a twice happy woman because you had him so 
long to double your joys and to divide your sorrows; nay. 



LETTERS 43 

more, and better, you ought to be a thrice happy woman be- 
cause you have him still in Heaven, where he will be waiting 
with our good Master to welcome you to the home that will 
never be darkened or left desolate. "For so an entrance shall 
be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting king- 
dom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 

Thanking you again for your thoughtful kindness, and 
praying that in your sacred sorrow you may have the sweetest 
comfort and the strongest consolation and the abiding pres- 
ence of our ever living, ever loving and never dying Saviour 
who is all and in all, I am yours in the covenant "until the 
day break and the shadows flee away." 

Alexander Dickson. 



St. Paul's Church Rectory, 

49 Erskine Street, Detroit, Mich., Oct. 16, 1899. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

My long absence from Albany has crowded out of my mind 
many things, but not of you and of those very dear to you. 
A notice in an Albany paper, which has just been brought to 
my attention, prompts me to send you a line expressive of deep 
sympathy for you and to tell you what I have often wanted to 
tell you of grateful recollections of the past. The instances 
of tender regard and the interchange of affection between 



44 ABRAHAM LANSING 

your home and those dearest to me have always been 
cherished. 

The associations I had with Mr. Lansing,, connected with 
Williams College, made him feel very near to me as a friend. 
He was truly a noble man. The comfort and consolation of 
your Christian faith must come to your aid at this time. Your 
trust will remain true, I hope, through these days of sadness. 
What could we do were it not for the expectation of a resur- 
rection and a reunion? 

You will believe me, I trust, 

Very sincerely yours, 

Rufus W. Clark. 



Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

I cannot express to you how grieved we have been by Mr. 
Lansing's death, or how much we have thought of you and 
felt for you in these days of trial. We all consider his death 
a personal loss. Our friendship began so many years ago 
and has remained steadfast and unbroken, and has been to us 
a constant source of pleasure and profit. I think there was no 
one outside of his immediate family that my father had as 
much affection for as for him. He admired him on account of 
his ability as a lawyer and his attainments as a student, and 
he loved him for the noble and gentle traits of character which 
he possessed to so marked a degree. We have often talked 



LETTERS 45 

about him and have always decided he was one of the finest 
gentlemen and one of the noblest hearted men we had ever 
known. 

You have our deepest sympathy and we all wish we could 
help you. You must always remember that we have not only 
been your friend but also his, and now that he is gone, we 
want to do all we can for you. 

Sincerely yours, 

Peyton F. Miller. 
Hudson, N. Y., Oct. 5, 1899. 



Indian Lake, Hamilton Co., N. Y., Feb. 15, 1900. 
Mrs. Abraham Lansing, Respected Madam : 

Your letter of Jan. 29 came while I was absent from home, 
having been in Canada for a short time, and was shocked to 
here of Mr. Lansing's death. My memery takes me back 
Long years ago when I had the Pleasure of acompaning Mr. 
Lansing as Guide from Blue mountain to the Saranacks, being 
the first Party that had Ever made the trip throug from here, 
as we had onely Cut out a Road to Blue mountain Lake that 
Season, up to that time my whole Life had been in the woods 
asosiated with Lumbermen and my astonishment and Surprise 
at the maners as up to that time I had not ever met an Edu- 
cated and cultured Gentleman, and in all the years of our 
aquantance nothing ever Ocured to change the good opinion 



46 ABRAHAM LANSING 

that I formed of a true Gentleman as I then saw it in Mr. 
Lansing, and my sympathy is Extended to you in this great 
Loss, one which can never be Repaired. 

I Remain Respectfully yours, 

Isaac Kenwell. 



My Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

I have thought of you day by day since my return home and 
after your great sorrow came to you. I know so well the 
dreariness and desolation that comes to one when all that is 
beautiful in life is taken from us, and I fully realize the depth 
of your grief, and I want you to know of my deep, heartfelt 
and loving sympathy for you. The beautiful character of 
your husband that won the admiration of every one will never 
be forgotten by those that had the honor of his friendship or 
acquaintance. 

You have a great deal to be thankful for in the years of 
delightful companionship that have been vouchsafed to you. 
Memories are not satisfying but they are comforting. 

Believe me in tenderest and most loving sympathy, 
Faithfully, your friend, 

M. Margaretta Manning. 

153 Washington Ave., Albany, N. Y '., 
November the $th, 1899. 



LETTERS 47 

606 James St., Syracuse, N. Y. 
My Dear Mrs. Lansing: 

We are thinking of you this bright day, when you are to 
lay your dear one away, and of the deep sorrow which is 
yours. Such consolation as the knowledge of Mr. Lansing's 
noble, well-spent life can give is truly yours, but I well know 
that the heart loneliness which you feel cannot be assuaged by 
the warm sympathy which we all feel for you. 

Mr. Andrews and I regret that we cannot be in Albany 
to-day to add our tribute of love and respect to one whom we 
have long deemed a dear friend. 

Believe me, dear Mrs. Lansing, with much love, 

Your friend, 

Marcia S. Andrews. 
October seventh, 1899. 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ALBANY COUNTY BAR 

AT A MEETING HELD OCTOBER J, 1899, TO TAKE 
ACTION UPON THE DEATH OF 

HONORABLE ABRAHAM LANSING 



AMEETING of the Albany County Bar was held in the 
Supreme Court room in the City Hall, Albany, on the 
seventh day of October, 1899, to take action upon the death 
of Abraham Lansing. Mr. Justice Rufus W. Peckham was 
chosen and acted as Chairman of the meeting. 

Upon taking the chair, Mr. Peckham spoke with great feel- 
ing of the high character of Abraham Lansing, of whom he 
had been an intimate friend for forty years. 

Mr. William P. Rudd, Mr. James F. Tracey and Mr. John 
De Witt Peltz were chosen to act as secretaries of the meet- 
ing. The Chairman appointed Hon. Charles E. Patterson, 
Lewis E. Carr, Abraham V. De Witt, Isaac Lawson and John 
A. Delehanty as a Committee to prepare and present to the 
meeting an expression of the Bar upon the loss which it has 
sustained by the death of Abraham Lansing. 

The following tributes to the memory of Abraham Lansing 
were pronounced : 



52 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Hon. Hamilton Harris : 

"My esteem for the late Hon. Abraham Lansing as a 
prominent lawyer, a delightful companion and a personal 
friend, induces me to speak in honor of his memory. He was 
a successful practitioner in our courts for more than forty 
years, and became endeared to the members of the Albany 
Bar by his genial manners, upright conduct and pure character. 

By birth and descent he was a true Albanian. He was a 
native of Albany, having an ancestry which had been identified 
with the city from its earliest days and had filled with credit 
many public offices. 

Having received a collegiate education, Mr. Lansing- 
brought to the study of the law a cultivated mind and became 
a thorough and successful lawyer and wise counsellor. He 
was careful and conscientious in the practice of the law and 
gave great study and labor to his cases. He was calm and 
sound in judgment, with a firm grasp upon principles. His 
arguments in the courts were well considered and presented 
with strength. 

The public, appreciating the sterling qualities of Mr. Lan- 
sing, chose him to fill a large round of important positions of 
trust and responsibility. He had been City Attorney, Cor- 
poration Counsel, State Treasurer, Supreme Court Reporter 
and State Senator. In all these various offices he acquitted 
himself with satisfaction to the public and credit to himself. 
As Senator he took an active and influential part in legislation. 

He was zealously interested in the welfare of the city and 
its institutions. His services and counsel were sought for by 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 53 

its civic, business and benevolent organizations and societies, 
and he became a respected member of many boards. He was 
the Senior Director of the Commercial Bank, a Trustee of 
the Albany Savings Bank, the Albany Academy, the Medical 
College, the Rural Cemetery, the Dudley Observatory, a Gov- 
ernor of the Albany Hospital, a member of the Board of Park 
Commissioners and a foundation member of the Fort Orange 
Club. 

He was a good and useful citizen in all the relations of life 
and faithful to every employment in which he engaged and 
every trust that was reposed in him. The number of impor- 
tant offices he was chosen to fill and the various trusts which 
he was selected to execute attest the high estimation of his 
integrity and capacity and appreciation of his worth enter- 
tained by the public. 

Distinguished in his appearance, erect in carriage, with 
affable manners, always kindly and cordial, Mr. Lansing was 
an interesting and companionable man. A lover of letters 
and books, he found diversion from the dry pursuits of the 
law in the pleasures of literature and society. His refined 
tastes and reserved temperament conduced to considerate 
rather than demonstrative action in his professional, as in pri- 
vate, life. He was a thorough gentleman by instinct and edu- 
cation — the type of courtesy and the soul of honor. 

We mourn his loss and desire to place upon record tributes 
of affection to his memory." 



54 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Hon. Simon W. Rosendale: 

"Since the Bar of Albany County has been sufficiently 
numerous to have a roster, such a list has doubtless contained 
the name of Lansing; since the beginning of the century it 
certainly has, and among them have been men of prominence 
and eminence. 

The Lansing of our time and our generation, Abraham 
Lansing, was a type of man and lawyer whom it is a delight 
to recall, of whom it is a pleasure to speak. 

He fulfilled many duties, public and private; he was an 
active practicing lawyer; he had been Supreme Court Re- 
porter; he had been State Senator; whatever he did he did 
well. As a lawyer he was painstaking, conscientious, thor- 
ough. The reports of appealed cases indicate his labors; his 
causes were most thoroughly prepared and successfully tried 
and argued. 

Recent close relations with him in a long-contested railroad 
litigation only confirmed previous experiences — that he was 
a man who knew his cases thoroughly and was prepared on 
every point. 

In his intercourse with brethren of the profession, his 
courtesy was unbounded. He always manifested the greatest 
respect; his manner, both to the Bench and Bar, might well 
serve as a model for professional deportment. As Supreme 
Court Reporter his work shows thoroughness, comprehension 
of the points decided and conciseness of statement, qualities 
to which reporters owe their success. 

As Senator he served his term with loftiest ideals of duty, 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 55 

and no measure could secure his approval which had not 
passed the criticism of his most conscientious scrutiny. He 
served a temporary period as State Treasurer under circum- 
stances which demonstrated his generosity and humanity. 

As a citizen he appreciated and well met his obligations ; he 
was identified with many institutions, religious and secular, pub- 
lic and private, such as go to make up a modern municipality. 

Director in a Bank of Discount; Trustee of a Savings Bank; 
Governor of the Hospital; Trustee of the Boys' Academy; in 
the Governing Boards of other organizations, his was a name 
on the Directing Boards of Albany's most prominent institu- 
tions. He represented Albany's oldest, truest and most de- 
voted citizenship. 

He was a most refined gentleman, who in an unusual man- 
ner reminded one of the courtliness, dignity and politeness 
of days gone by. He was a constant reminder of the best 
manners of generations ago, and it would be difficult to find 
a better representative of a refined, considerate, high-minded 
gentleman than Abraham Lansing. 

It is an oriental custom that a lighted taper reminds the 
relatives and friends of the departed one. If such were our 
methods, the light which would represent Abraham Lansing 
would shed clear and gentle rays, recalling the placid and 
lovely manly characteristics of which he was possessed. He 
was cultivated in intellect, charming in manner, able in his 
profession, a public spirited and model citizen. 

The Bar of this county may well cherish the memory of one 
who reflected so much credit on the profession and the com- 
munity." 



56 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Hon. Amasa J. Parker : 

"Mr. Chairman — In adding my testimonial on this occasion 
I would preface my remarks by saying that it was my great 
privilege to know Abraham Lansing from my early youth, 
and intimately. Later on, when I attained my majority 
and was admitted to the Bar, Mr. Lansing was well estab- 
lished in his profession and had already acquired a high repu- 
tation. 

For upwards of forty years Mr. Lansing was a quiet, thor- 
ough, diligent and successful practitioner. He was equally 
able before a jury at nisi prius as in the Appellate Courts of 
this State. He was most painstaking in collecting and array- 
ing his facts; his briefs showed a thorough knowledge of the 
law, and his presentation of the case demonstrated force, 
sagacity and eloquence of no ordinary character. But aside 
from distinction in trial and arguments in the courts, the 
great proportion of his professional career was most closely 
confined to his office. This was the result of the character of 
the business in his charge as well as a natural preference on 
his part for quiet and deliberate work, and it was always ex- 
ceptionally well done. He always gave to his client the most 
entire devotion, excluding all consideration of self or time, 
whatever it cost. 

In public life Mr. Lansing served this, the city of his birth, 
and his State with the same loyalty, ability and distinction that 
gave him high prominence at the Bar. He served the State 
as Supreme Court Reporter, as State Treasurer, and later as 
a Senator; and the city as City Attorney and Corporation 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 57 

Counsel, and later as a Washington Park Commissioner for 
many years. 

He was a diligent and devoted Trustee in many of our 
prominent public, financial and educational institutions, and 
was always interested in plans for public expansion and im- 
provements. 

He was devoted to his home and friends, and while firm in 
his religious views, was most tolerant and liberal towards men 
differing from him. 

Mr. Lansing was the embodiment of honor, integrity and 
true manhood, and his influence throughout a long and busy 
life was always for the good of the community, and the results 
of his influence will long be felt. 

Gentlemen of the Albany Bar, I can sum up all in a few 
words : One of our number, Abraham Lansing, a gracious and 
dignified man of the 'Old School,' upright, able and learned, 
God-fearing and truthful, loyal in his belief, clean in all his 
methods, full of honors, and who has endeared himself to all 
who knew him, has been summoned hence and crossed the 
dark river and entered into Life Eternal, there to receive that 
crown promised to the faithful." 



Mr. John De Witt Peltz : 

"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Albany Bar— I can- 
not refrain from adding briefly to what has been said and so 
well said here to-day regarding Mr. Abraham Lansing, be- 



58 ABRAHAM LANSING 

cause there is a phase of his character and a range of his 
activities which has not been alluded to, and which it seems to 
me should be mentioned in order to present a complete picture 
of his life. 

Mr. Lansing was at the time of his death the Senior Vestry- 
man of St. Peter's Church in this city. Since 1887 he has 
rendered faithful and constant service as an officer of that 
organization. And having been associated with him for sev- 
eral years past as a fellow Vestryman, I am able to speak with 
knowledge of all that he has done so well in that sphere of 
usefulness. 

Almost the last matters of business to which he gave his 
attention before he left home, upon the vacation which termi- 
nated in his fatal illness, concerned the affairs of St. Peter's 
Church, and I well remember the force and clearness with 
which he discussed them and the satisfactory conclusions which 
he reached. He spoke then of other things to be attended to 
on his return from his vacation, and he gave little indication 
of failing physical powers at that time. 

Mr. Lansing was a most useful officer of St. Peter's Church 
and a worthy successor to the many distinguished and able 
men who have managed its affairs in the past. 

He was modest and retiring, but always ready to do his 
share and more than his share of the work of the parish. He 
was often appealed to when questions of policy or matters 
requiring sound business judgment arose, and he never disap- 
pointed those who relied on him. 

I can well remember occasions when his quiet and convinc- 
ing suggestions showed clearly the best solution of problems 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 59 

under discussion, and I remember a recent notable occasion 
when a few quiet words from him settled at once a difficult 
question which had been discussed by others with some per- 
plexity. 

He will be missed in the councils of St. Peter's quite as 
much as in those of the many other institutions with which 
he was connected, and it seems fitting that at this time every 
reminiscence of his faithfulness and usefulness should be 
called to mind and recorded. 

There is one other circumstance to which I allude with some 
hesitation, but in the belief that you all value it as I do. A 
dear friend of his told me that he saw and conversed with Mr. 
Lansing after he was stricken with his fatal illness, and that 
Mr. Lansing then said that he realized fully his condition and 
knew that he could not recover his health. And he added that 
he knew well what the future had in store for him, and that 
he was ready. 

It seems to me that no better eulogium can be pronounced 
on the life and character of this noble man than to recite the 
fact that, having so much to live for as he had, when the 
inevitable summons came which must come to us all to leave 
everything that is desirable in this world and to go forward 
into the great untried hereafter, he was ready." 



Hon. Edwin Countryman: 

"Mr. Chairman— 1 heartily concur in all that has been said 
of our deceased professional brother. He was certainly a 



60 ABRAHAM LANSING 

genial, social, courteous, refined and cultured gentleman. He 
was strictly conscientious and faithful in all the relations of 
life. He was, moreover, a most unobtrusive and unassuming 
man. I have sometimes thought that his retiring disposition 
and his disinclination to assume positions which his ability and 
character gave him a right to occupy, not only hindered and 
arrested the full development of his powers, but darkened 
and concealed from his best acquaintances and nearest friends 
the penetrating and far reaching mental force he held in re- 
serve. 

Mr. Lansing was a most estimable, highly deserving and 
painstaking lawyer. I never knew a man more careful and 
exact in ascertaining, or more tenacious in upholding and pro- 
tecting his clients' interests. He would never recognize any 
distinction or difference in the duty he owed his client, whether 
that client was a private person or corporation, or the people 
at large in the community he was called upon to serve. He 
gave to all his employers, public and private, his unremitting 
attention and best efforts, yielding nothing to claimants 
against the city he represented from personal sympathy or 
political influence, or to avoid additional labor for him- 
self. 

His work as reporter of the Supreme Court affords, per- 
haps, the best evidence available to the public of his unwearied 
assiduity, close application and patient devotion to duty in 
rendering the official and professional services imposed upon 
him in the course of his active life. It may truthfully be said 
of his seven volumes of reports, what may be affirmed of com- 
paratively few other official or unofficial reports of decisions 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 61 

in this or any other State, that they compare favorably with 
the seven volumes of reports of his most illustrious predeces- 
sor, Nicholas Hill, who was, I think, the most expert, proficient 
and consummate lawyer this country has yet produced. Most 
of us have had occasion, some of us frequently, to examine 
and study many of the decisions reported by Mr. Lansing, and 
we have invariably found concise and yet comprehensive pre- 
liminary statements of all the facts essential to a proper under- 
standing of the opinion of the court. He was not content 
to palm oft" his report of a decision with the stereotyped 
statement of most of our reporters : 'The facts will be found 
in the opinion.' We know, and the reporters ought to know 
that, as a rule, all the essential facts are not to be found in the 
opinion, which is written upon the assumption that the reporter 
will state the material facts. Mr. Lansing appreciated the 
important truth that the practical value of a passing remark 
or of the statement of a general proposition in a judicial 
opinion lies in the application of it to the facts of the case, and 
he was too honest a workman to avoid or omit the most im- 
portant part of his duty as a reporter. 

Indeed, he never slighted or slurred over his work in any 
of the callings, official or professional, in which he served. To 
use his own language on a similar occasion, in speaking of an 
eminent lawyer at this bar, who had passed away: Tn the 
performance of his arduous labors he seemed ever to be work- 
ing at his best. There was no flurry, no impatience, no 
precipitancy, no importunity for delay, no want of time for 
what might be necessary, no want of thoroughness in what 
he undertook. Each dutv seemed to be met as it arose, and 



62 ABRAHAM LANSING 

was dispatched with facility and with an unerring insight into 
its requirements.' 

It may also be said of him, as he said of his friend on the 
occasion to which I have alluded : 'He was no recluse. He 
loved good company and the gayeties of social life. His mind 
was imbued with a keen interest in public affairs, and it is not 
to be supposed that he was without ambition to share in their 
preferments, and to a considerable extent he did so share, 
notably as a member of the Senate of this State. But he was 
absolutely without ambition to attain to any place or position 
by a sacrifice or compromise of his convictions, or by arts 
which would not bear the severest criticisms of honorable 
men.' 

His life is now closed, and his remains are about to be 
committed to their last resting place. What lies beyond we 
cannot know. But this we know, that he has left behind a life 
without a stain and an honorable name." 



Hon. Charles E. Patterson, as Chairman of the Committee 
appointed to prepare suitable resolutions, in presenting 
them for the consideration of the meeting, spoke as follows : 

"Mr. Chairman — I present this minute and these resolu- 
tions under the instructions of the committee of which I am 
chairman. I feel that to add a word in support of them may 
offend the proprieties of the occasion, but it is hard for me 
to let this moment go by without saying at least a single word 
of tribute to the memory of Abraham Lansing. Whatever I 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 63 

may say cannot add to the weight of what has already been 
eloquently said by those who have addressed you. Indeed. 
I can say nothing that to my mind will materially emphasize 
anything that has already been said. In listening to those 
who have spoken before me, I have been much impressed with 
the one sentiment that has run through the minds of all the 
speakers, as expressed in the words they have given utterance 
to. It is this : Abraham Lansing was always recognized as a 
gentleman. In America, the word 'Gentleman' has a significa- 
tion that it is not accorded in the mother country from which 
our language is descended. A gentleman is not necessarily a 
person of high birth, or of rank. He is a man at all times of 
honor, and in addition to that, he is a man that has worth 
which is displayed in his recognition of the rights of others, 
and in his recognition of the wants of others. Never forget- 
ting what is due to himself, he is always an altruist, and 
regards the rights of others as equal with his own. Such a 
man was Abraham Lansing. It is not sufficient to say that he 
did no wrong. He was so constituted that it was impossible 
for him to do a thing which he regarded as wrong. In con- 
nection with that, or beyond that, he always recognized the 
rights of others, not only in a courteous recognition of their 
rights, but in outward acts demonstrating that their rights 
must be respected and that their wants were as dear to him as 
the wants of his own individual person. Loyal to all interests 
intrusted to him in his profession, in business life, in charitable 
enterprises and in offices of State, in his association with his 
fellow men, whether for purposes of business or of pleasure, 
at all times he was a gentleman." 



64 ABRAHAM LANSING 

The following minute was unanimously adopted as a fit ex- 
pression of the loss which the Bar of Albany County has 
sustained in the death of Hon. Abraham Lansing: 

"Abraham Lansing, a distinguished member of the Bar of 
this county, died at his residence in Albany on the 4th day 
of October, 1899, at the age of sixty- four years. He was 
born in this city, and this was always his place of residence. 
By inheritance he was possessed of noble qualities, which no 
act of his ever tarnished. To his endowments by nature were 
added the acquirements of a liberal education. He became a 
lawyer, and in his profession acquired eminence. His fidelity 
to the interests of his clients was marked and his industry and 
ability made his service to them of the greatest value. In the 
line of his profession he was called to official positions in 
which he was always faithful to the trusts reposed in him. 
His worth was recognized beyond the limits of his profession, 
and he was called upon to fill many places of responsibility in 
business and social organizations, as well as to hold office in 
the service of the city and State. His record as acting State 
Treasurer, as Corporation Counsel, as Supreme Court Re- 
porter and as State Senator, was always clean, and in these 
offices he earned most worthy distinction. In addition to his 
marked intellectual characteristics, he had a kindly heart and 
courteous manner, which secured to him the affection of all 
who knew him. Those who did know him appreciate that 
beyond the loss which the municipality and State have sus- 
tained, they have lost a friend. It is, therefore, now 

Resolved, That this minute be presented to the Trial Term 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 65 

of the Supreme Court now in session, and a motion be made 
that it be entered upon the minutes of the court, and that a 
copy thereof, subscribed by the Chairman and Secretary of 
this meeting, be transmitted to the widow of the deceased. 

(Signed.) Charles E. Patterson. 

Lewis E. Carr. 
Abraham V. De Witt. 
I. Lawson. 
John A. Delehanty." 



The following letter was read by one of the secretaries of the 
meeting: 

Albany, N. Y., October 6, 1899. 
Hon. Rufus W. Peckham, Chairman: 

Sir. — I sincerely regret, by reason of necessary absence 
from the city, my inability to attend the meeting of the 
Albany Bar. called for Saturday, to pay their tribute of respect 
to the memory of Abraham Lansing. While the regard in 
which he was held will be voiced by men who have known him 
longer and more intimately, I am very certain none held him 
in higher esteem. 

So many and high encomiums have been passed upon him 
as a man, that I may well be content to say that as a lawyer 
in courtesy, ability and integrity, he reflected high credit upon 
the Bar of which he was a member, and that his standard 



66 ABRAHAM LANSING 

morally and intellectually was an ideal one to which the 
younger men may well aspire, while those of us who knew him 
well can bear high testimony as to his worth as we mourn 
his loss. 

Very truly yours, 

J. Newton Fiero. 



TRUSTEES OF ALBANY ACADEMY 

At a meeting of the Trustees of the Albany Academy, held in 
the Chapel October 6, 1899, the following minute was 
adopted and ordered to be published : 

"The Trustees place on record their high estimate of their 
associate, Honorable Abraham Lansing, and their deep grief 
at his death. 

Mr. Lansing became a member of our Board in 1873, fol- 
lowing his father, Christopher Y. Lansing, and immediately 
succeeding his father-in-law, General Peter Gansevoort. An 
old Academy boy in the direct line of succession of two 
honored Trustees, he brought to the performance of his duties 
all the loyalty of an honest heart and the intelligence of a 
trained intellect. He was proud of the history of the Acad- 
emy; he magnified its future. 

We recall with affectionate interest his generosity, faith- 
fulness, thoughtful counsel and unfailing courtesy. While 



PUBLIC TRIBUTES 67 

tolerant of criticism and charitable in judgment, he was in- 
flexible in his adherence to conviction. 

We took pride in Mr. Lansing's literary taste, which, while 
it valued sound thought, appreciated correctness of style and 
felicity of expression. He was frequently the orator on pub- 
lic occasions and always honored them by his graceful speech. 
He was a well-rounded man. In manner graceful and gentle; 
in speech dignified and thoughtful; in action, honest and in- 
telligent. 

We deeply sympathize with his stricken wife and extend to 
her our heartfelt sympathy. 

(Signed.) John F. Rathbone, 

President. 

Henry P. Warren, 

Clerk." 



SPEECHES 



SPEECHES OF ABRAHAM LANSING 



AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE OF THE 

NEW CITY HALL, ALBANY, 

OCTOBER 13, 1 88 1 

After Austin's Band had performed a selection, the Hon. 
Abraham Lansing stepped forward and delivered the follow- 
ing address : 

''Gentlemen of the Masonic Fraternity — In the order of 
exercises appointed for this occasion, the part has been as- 
signed to me of extending to you in a formal way, and in this 
public manner, the invitation to lay this corner stone. That 
invitation I now give to you on behalf of the Mayor of this 
city and of its Board of Aldermen ; of the Supervisors of this 
county; of the committee designated by act of the State Legis- 
lature to carry forward the construction of this edifice and of 
the citizens themselves of this city and county. 

A little more than half a century ago, the city and county 
of Albany shared with the State, for municipal purposes, the 
occupation of the building which is now known as the 'Old 
Capitol.' At about that period the importance and extent of 



72 ABRAHAM LANSING 

the business necessary for the proper administration of the 
city and county affairs, keeping pace in importance as those 
affairs did with the population and growth of the city and 
county themselves, attracted the attention of their citizens to 
the need of a separate building for its transaction, and as a 
result of the consideration then given to the subject the con- 
struction of a separate building was determined upon. 

On the 31st of August, 1829, very little more, as you will 
see, than half a century ago, upon the site of this building now 
in progress, and I know not but over the very spot where we 
now stand, the citizens of Albany county came together to 
witness, for them, an event of great interest and significance, 
the laying of the corner stone of the new building. Here they 
stood in the sunlight of those hopeful and prosperous days, 
looking down towards the river, over a goodly number of 
dwellings and buildings to the east, but to the immediate west 
looking over what must have been almost a rural suburb of 
the city. 

The completion of that building marked the separation of 
the city and county from the State, in the sense of a division 
of their interests in the same halls for legislative and business 
purposes; and in that building the city and county long en- 
joyed the comforts and conveniences of the accommodations 
which it afforded. Before, however, the half century had run 
its course, and while it was in the last year of its fulfillment, by 
a casualty, as to the origin of which there remains to this day 
a doubt, that building was destroyed. Through the efforts 
of a competent and vigorous fire department, working under 
the disadvantage of the cold and ice of a severe winter's night. 



SPEECHES 73 

the important records and the historic pictures of so much 
value to us were rescued, and are to find a place, as we fondly 
trust, in this new structure. 

During the period in which this earlier building had been in 
use by us, the State of New York, advancing by rapid strides 
in wealth and prosperity, began the erection of a new building 
for its State capital. The building now in progress and ap- 
proaching, as we earnestly trust, its completion, is upon a scale 
of greatness and grandeur without rival on this continent and 
attests in a signal manner the pride of our legislators in the 
greatness, the dignity and importance of our State. 

Upon the destruction of their building, already referred to, 
movements were at once made by the citizens of this city and 
county for the erection of a new building to supply its place. 
There were no funds provided for that purpose and the muni- 
cipal authorities had not the authority to obtain them. In 
this situation of affairs, our citizens themselves made applica- 
tion to the State Legislature and obtained from it the right to 
be taxed in their property and estates, to the extent necessary 
for the accomplishment of their wishes. This application met 
with favorable consideration, and as a result a committee of 
citizens of the city and county, in whom the entire community 
have unquestioned confidence, were designated to provide for 
the accomplishment of the enterprise, and the necessary power 
was conferred on the proper municipal authorities to provide 
for its expense, within reasonable prescribed limits, by 
taxation. 

This committee entered heartily and intelligently into the 
work, and as the result of their labors, guided by accomplished 



74 ABRAHAM LANSING 

architects and aided by skilled workmen, they have brought 
this structure so far in its progress towards completion, that 
to-day we are able to assemble to witness those ceremonies so 
admirable and expressive and appropriate when performed, as 
it is the custom they shall be, by your ancient order — the 
ceremonies appropriate to the laying of its corner stone. 

It was natural, in view of all that had been undertaken and 
was intended by the State, in such close proximity to this site, 
that the people of this community should be desirous, within 
the reasonable limit of their means, to erect an edifice worthy 
of the capital of the State, as well as a county embracing, with 
its thriving towns and villages, two distinct municipalities in 
its limits, and a population representing in a large degree the 
interests of agriculture, of manufacture and of trade and 
commerce. Such a building, we may confidently assert, this 
building, on the foundation of which we stand, is to be. The 
designer has done his work with excelling taste and ability. 
The builders have supplemented his labors with admirable 
skill, and we stand to-day, citizens of this county, proud of 
the enterprise and of the edifice, which we picture to ourselves 
in the near future. 

Gentlemen of the Masonic order : The erection of a public 
building is always a matter of great public interest. The con- 
templation of suitable structures for public uses, when built 
within the public resources and with the cordial sympathy and 
co-operation of the public interested as this will have been, is 
certainly both beneficial and gratifying. 

The interest felt in this building is peculiar. It is the off- 
spring of the voluntary choice and wish of the community. 



SPEECHES 75 

each member of which has, and feels that he has, a part and 
personal concern in it, and so, necessarily, he must have. It 
is to be the hall of its records, the repository of much that is 
valuable in the past and of much, we fondly hope, which will 
be of value to us in the coming time. Its roof will cover the 
halls of its local legislatures, both that of the county and of the 
city — those local legislatures the wisdom or mistakes of whose 
enactments will so materially affect us in our prosperity and 
happiness. It will contain the local halls of civil and criminal 
justice, to whose decrees we shall look for the protection of 
our rights of person and of property. It will be, in fine, the 
seat of the dispensation of our local government in its different 
branches, and in that respect the common centre of those trans- 
actions which mutually concern us. 

As a part of the ceremonies which you are expected to per- 
form, I understand that you are to test the accuracy of a part 
of this work and to pass upon the fitness of this stone for the 
chief place in the structure. We invite you to critical tests 
and to searching examinations, and as you shall find the work 
of these builders true and worthy, so may those who are in 
time to occupy this building, work well and skillfully for the 
honor, the prosperity and happiness of this community. 

Gentlemen, it seems most fitting that your ancient and hon- 
orable fraternity should be invited to perform the ceremonies 
of laying the corner stone of the new city hall at Albany, and 
this I now invite you to do with the usual forms of Masonry." 



76 ABRAHAM LANSING 



THE RAILROAD COMMISSION 

WHY THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE ALLOWED A VOICE 
IN THEIR SELECTION 

REMARKS OF SENATOR ABRAHAM LANSING OF ALBANY 

The following is the speech delivered by Senator Lansing in 
the Senate May 4, 1882, on the Railroad Commission bill : 

"Mr. Chairman — No amendment has thus far been offered 
to the bill under discussion, excepting the amendment of the 
Senator from the Fourth, by which he proposes to substitute 
in the place of a commission appointable under certain restric- 
tions by the Governor, a commission elective by the people, 
so that at this time the question before the Senate is purely 
one as to the method of choosing the commissioners. I have 
no set or methodical speech to make on this question, nor do 
I think that it is altogether profitable to spend much time in 
its discussion in the hope of influencing the determination at 
which the Senate shall ultimately arrive. If I am not mis- 
taken in judging of the temper and disposition of the Senate, 
a conclusion had already been reached when this discussion 
began. There is a certain inexorable policy of party, which 
recognizes no law but the law of party interests and leaves 
no margin for individual discretion, which ordinarily governs 
in the decision of questions of this character, and whether an 
alliance such as has been suggested exists here or not, or 
whether existing, it does or does not go to the extent of decid- 



SPEECHES 77 

ing such matters by actual caucus — there can be but little 
doubt but that party policy will decide, or rather has already 
decided, what the action of the Senate on this question is to be. 
This discussion has taken a wide range and has induced a 
great variety of suggestions upon matters which seem to have 
but little, if any, relevancy to the subject under consideration. 
The Senator from the Twenty-ninth, who has just taken his 
seat, has referred us to the arguments offered by the Senator 
from the Sixth as decisive upon the merits of his side of the 
question, and I believe the Senator from the Sixth has summed 
up to the Senate about all which can be said in the way of 
argument on that side, together with many other matters 
which do not strike me as arguments, at least upon the merits 
of this bill. The Senator from the Sixth seems to have come 
to the Senate with something upon his mind, growing out of 
the attitude which he occupied, or was about to take, to that 
party which he was then believed to represent. He seems to 
have considered that there was something in that attitude 
which required explanation, and if he has not set himself right 
before us and before the public, it is certainly not because the 
Senate has not accorded to him a most patient, if not a willing, 
hearing of all that he has had to say on the subject. I will 
not attempt to follow the Senator through all the winds and 
turnings of his earlier remarks and of those made in this 
debate in explanation of his course politically. I wish to refer 
merely to that general current of suggestion or argument 
which seemed to run through and underlie his remarks, or ex- 
culpation, if it may be so termed. Its logical inference and 
result seemed to me something like this, as if he had said : Tn 



78 ABRAHAM LANSING 

a republican or popular form of government, I saw two great 
parties, one strongly intrenched in the power and patronage 
of government, the other professing to see that this power 
and patronage were abused for purposes of injustice and 
wrong; that false theories were fostered and advanced under 
it, and the spirit of the government, wrested from its true 
intent and legitimate purposes, was seeking to gain the 
strength and position by which it should be enabled to right the 
wrong and give back a wiser and more honest government to 
the country, and I said, I have talents and ability. I have 
training and skill in the handling of an argument. In the 
cause of truth I can be a power for good, and in the cause of 
error, too, I could, if I would, do battle effectively. I recog- 
nize a sense of obligation to conviction. I will spurn the 
inducements of power and cast my lot with the weaker party 
and dedicate my services to the cause of reform. And now 
the hour has almost struck. The great fabric of misused 
power is tottering to its fall. It gathers its forces about it, 
and pours out its treasure for a desperate and decisive effort, 
and now all depends upon my action; standing in the very front 
of the contest, all eyes are turned upon me in expectation and 
hope. I realize the situation and know that upon my course 
this great struggle is to be determined, and so situated I say: 
Oh ! there was a man in my neighborhood who had an ambi- 
tion ; there was a man in my ward who aspired to be a con- 
stable, and I and my followers, 40,000 of them, as I claim, 
somewhat less than that as others claim, desired that ambition 
should be gratified ; it was useful to me that it should be, and 
my party had refused me that request. There was a man in 



SPEECHES 79 

my county who had been elected to clerkship, and one higher 
in office, elected by my vote and the votes of my party, acting 
under the forms of law, and within the limits, as he claimed, 
of lawfully delegated authority, had assumed to discipline that 
clerk, and that was offensive to me and my followers. There- 
upon I did not throw down my arms and surrender to the 
enemy; my nature is not one which admits of surrender; but 
I took with me the arms and the energies which I had dedi- 
cated to the service of my convictions and my party, and 
while the faith that I had espoused still remained with me, I 
went over to the enemy, I and my followers, and wrought the 
defeat and overthrow of that party and of its cause. And 
then we came with banners and with trumpets and we thun- 
dered at the doors of the conventions of the party and de- 
manded admission to its counsels, not upon the ground that 
we had done so much to build it up and to advance its cause, 
but upon the theory that we had done so much to tear it down 
and destroy it and were capable of doing so much more in the 
same direction, and we were refused admission. These were 
my grievances and this is my justification.' 

Well, it is said that two kinds of men serve their country or 
their party. One serves because in the prosperity of his coun- 
try or party lies his own advantage. The other serves for the 
faith and loyalty that is in him and because that country or 
that party is the embodiment of a truth and the exponent of 
an idea. The one uses his country or party for his own ad- 
vancement, the other is used by his country or party for its 
honor and success. It is to be hoped that in the career of 
public service and of public honors, which the Senator has 



80 ABRAHAM LANSING 

marked out for himself in the future, and I assume that his 
career is to be both honorable and useful, there may be no 
obligations of vengeance to interfere with the obligations of 
patriotism, and that in the service which he shall render to the 
new party with which he is associated — whether it be the 
party of the new alliance, which has been so often referred to 
here, or whether it be that other party which has recently 
claimed to have found the true avenue to popular favor — he 
may be as useful at least as he has been to the party which he 
has abandoned. 

Mr. Chairman, referring to the line of argument pursued by 
the Senator from the Sixth upon the merits of this question, 
he takes the position that it is not safe to trust the election of 
these commissioners to the people because party conventions 
stand between the people and an expression of their real 
choice. That is to say : the Senator himself, the nominee of a 
party convention, and holding his position through the selec- 
tion of the people, confirming the choice of the convention, 
addressing a Senate composed of thirty-two Senators, each 
one of whom was the nominee of a party convention, address- 
ing them in a State whose Governor and Lieutenant Governor, 
judiciary and heads of departments are mainly elected by the 
people, acting upon the suggestion and nomination of party 
conventions, says that there is that absolute and necessary 
evil and dishonesty in the management and workings of these 
conventions which render it necessary that the Senate should 
decline to vote for placing the election of these commissioners 
in the hands of the people of this State. This is the main, 
and, indeed, the only argument against the adoption of this 



SPEECHES 81 

amendment. The idea that the people themselves cannot be 
trusted to select, if the choice can absolutely be left to them, 
no one of its opponents has the hardihood to avow, and such a 
suggestion is distinctly disclaimed by the Senator from the 
Twenty-ninth and by the Senator from the Sixth and by each 
one of the other Senators speaking against it, whose remarks 
I have heard. The evils of this elective system must appear, 
if anywhere, in the outcome, in the results of the elections 
themselves, and to assail the elective system in that way is 
necessarily to assail the conduct, or the character, of those 
whom that system places in office. It is to assail, at all events, 
the average official chosen by the system of election as being 
unfitted or unworthy in some essential particular for the per- 
formance of the duties of the office to which he is chosen, and 
inasmuch as the objection chiefly urged to the proceedings of 
conventions is that they are likely to be composed of or 
governed by venal and designing men who can be controlled 
for evil purposes, I assume that it is intended that the choice 
of such conventions must be of the same type as the con- 
ventions themselves, or of those who govern and guide the 
course of the conventions, or, at least, that such will be the 
case in a system which permits the election of railroad com- 
missioners. Now, from the logic of such arguments, we may 
well appeal to the logic of facts. From the inception of the 
State to the present time, its officers have been continually 
elected through the intervention of conventions and by the 
votes of the people. I hold in my hand a copy of the civil list 
of the State, and turning to its pages I find among the officers 
elected in modern times, in addition to the incumbents at the 



82 ABRAHAM LANSING 

present time, among the Governors, Dix and Seymour, Hoff- 
man, Tilden and Robinson. Among the secretaries of State, 
such men as Nelson, Miller, Beach, Leavenworth and Depew. 
Among the comptrollers, such as Church and Allen, Robinson 
and Olcott. Among the attorney-generals, such as Dickinson, 
Cochran, Champlain and Schoonmaker. And it is gratifying 
to look back upon the history of the State and to find that, 
notwithstanding the intervention of conventions and the elec- 
tive system, it has been able to fill its departments of govern- 
ment with men whose deeds are parcel of the history and 
prosperity of the State, and whose fame is part of the fame 
and the honor of the whole country. Now, I commend this 
civil list to the study of those who are disposed to doubt the 
ability of the people to elect honest and capable officers, not- 
withstanding the necessary fact resulting inevitably from our 
form and system of government that there must be political 
parties and that there must be nominations by political con- 
ventions, and I submit that if there is anything at all in the 
logic of facts, the facts there found will, at least in comparison 
with those which are apparent under the appointing system, 
destroy the effect of these arguments now boldly brought for- 
ward against the elective system. And as to the appointing 
system, it is hardly to be disputed that in modern times at all 
events far more of accusation has been brought against the 
management of appointed than of elected heads of depart- 
ments, and that it remains to be seen whether the change 
recently made in the office of one important government 
department, to suit the convenience of politics, and confess- 
edly not to benefit the public service, is not in fact just as much 



SPEECHES 83 

a partisan appointment and made in the interests of party 
rather than of the State, as it would have been had the office 
been elective and a change made through an election by the 
people acting upon the nomination of a party convention. 

But, it is said that in this especial and particular matter of 
railroad commissioners, the railroads have a great stake; that 
the railroads have the ability to control conventions and that 
they do control them, and that in the nomination of commis- 
sioners they will interfere in their own interests and betray the 
people, by securing their own nominees, and thus defeat the 
very objects had in view in the creation of a commission. And 
to obviate this objection, and to provide against this difficulty, 
we are told that the power of appointment should be placed 
in the hands of the Governor of the State. Well, there are to 
be three commissioners, and there is but one Governor. It is 
not intended to take the election of a Governor away from 
the people and place it in the Anti-Monopoly League, or else- 
where, that I have heard. He is to be elected hereafter, I 
assume, as this bill does not attempt to make it unlawful that 
there shall be a nominating convention by the people through 
the intervention of a political convention ; and I want to know 
what provision is to be made for warding off the railroads 
from the conventions which shall nominate the Governor. If 
the railroads are so deeply interested that they will manipulate 
a convention to nominate three commissioners in their interest, 
a fortiori, I say they will manipulate a convention which is to 
place in nomination a single Governor, who is to have absolute 
power to select those commissioners, as he will. And the 
Governor being elected upon the nomination of the railroads, 



84 ABRAHAM LANSING 

and in their interests, being, in fact, in the exercise of this 
particular duty of his office, but the very hand of the railroads 
themselves, how much more complete must be the betrayal of 
the objects of this bill in the selection of commissioners by 
this one authority than, under any circumstances, it could be 
under the selection by the majority vote of an average State 
party convention. 

But I do not admit that the choice which the people will 
make of commissioners is necessarily, by reason of the evils 
which are said to exist in political conventions per se, or by 
reason of the danger of interference of the railroads with the 
proceedings or nominations of those conventions, in danger of 
being such a choice that the objects of the bill will be in 
danger. These commissioners will be elected by the people 
expressly upon their worthiness to serve in the discharge of 
the particular duties which are devolved on them by the bill. 
There is an undercurrent of apprehension running through 
every political convention, as to what the judgment of intelli- 
gent popular sentiment may be upon their action; there is a 
public opinion, which none are shrewder in apprehending than 
the average politician, which underlies and governs, in greater 
or less degree, the action even of political conventions. If 
one party shall defy that public sentiment, therein will be the 
advantage of the other party, and it will indubitably see that 
advantage and be likely to improve it; more likely, in my judg- 
ment, than it will be to suffer the control of railroads to gov- 
ern its action. 

Now there must, of course, if we have a commission at all, 
be some method providing for choosing the commissioners. 



SPEECHES 85 

It is undoubtedly true that in everything which relies for its 
operation upon the wisdom and justice and disinterestedness 
of human agency, there cannot be an absolutely perfect suc- 
cess. As between these two systems, my vote is for trusting 
the people. To deny the ability of the people to make the 
choice is, in my judgment, denying the wisdom of our system 
itself. Every line written in our constitution, every movement 
and inspiration of our popular form of government, is based 
upon the idea of popular sovereignty. We must be willing to 
test the strength of our theories in practice and live up to our 
profession. If, indeed, these possibilities for evil which have 
been pointed out actually exist by reason of the necessary con- 
dition that there must be political conventions, and in our form 
of government I believe that there must, then the argument 
seems to show that the whole system of popular elections and 
the experiment of republican government is a failure. This 
I am unwilling to admit, nor do I believe those who argue 
against an elective commission would admit it. Nevertheless, 
the logic of their argument seems to lead directly to such a 
conclusion. 

Mr. Chairman, I can conceive of powers so great and far- 
reaching that they ought not to be vested by the State any- 
where, or in anybody, and I believe that this suggestion is true 
of the powers which might be vested in a board of railroad 
commissioners. I do not believe that any simile can be more 
complete or exact than that which compares the railroads of 
this country, in their relation to the body politic, to the arteries 
of the human system in the body of man. It is almost literally 
accurate to say that the railroads are the arteries of the State ; 



86 ABRAHAM LANSING 

they carry life and nourishment to each of its organs, and as 
it is true that they carry and dispense life and nourishment, it 
is also true that to impede or embarrass them in this essential 
function is to disturb and disarrange the whole system, while 
to destroy them would be almost as fatal in its results to the 
State as the destruction of the arteries would be to man. This 
is nowhere more certainly true than in respect to the railroads 
within the limits of this great State, which they serve, and in 
the advancement and prosperity and commercial greatness of 
which they have formed and do form so essential and im- 
portant a factor. We have been recently talking about freeing 
our canals, and we have recently passed a law liberating them 
to the free uses of commerce. Why have we done this, if not 
because outside of the limits of our State other avenues to the 
seaports are opening to commerce and rivaling our own ? This 
rivalry threatens our commercial prosperity and it enlists in its 
aid all the artifices and all the wealth which the great common 
carrier systems of the country can command. I believe that 
powers which would enable railroad commissioners to inter- 
fere with the freedom of our own roads in this rivalry and 
competition, so that they might hamper and embarrass them to 
any great extent, should not be conferred, not necessarily 
because it would be abused, but because the abuse would in- 
volve consequences too serious to the State to warrant such 
power being entrusted at all. Upon this subject I do not mean 
now to express the full views which I entertain ; but I see 
nothing in this bill which should at all constrain us to withhold 
this commission, or which should lead us to distrust the ability 
of the people in their ordinary way to elect them. 



SPEECHES 87 

The Senator from the Twenty-ninth has discussed at some 
length views entertained by ex-Governor Hoffman. I have 
been unable to gather from anything which the Senator has 
read that Governor Hoffman entertained views unfavorable 
to the expediency of an elective railroad commission. He 
seems to speak rather of the powers of the executive, and to 
express the view that those powers should be well defined, 
comprehensive and far-reaching — absolute in many particulars 
—and so undoubtedly they should be, but extending power for 
the administration of the affairs of government to an adminis- 
trative officer is an entirely different consideration from 
extending to the Governor the powers of appointing admin- 
istrative officers, which he may, if disposed, use to promote 
his own interests. In saying this I mean to make no sugges- 
tion that any one contemplates such a thing as that, but only 
that we have a theory which is in my judgment a wise one, 
that in legislation we are not unnecessarily to throw tempta- 
tion in the way of any officer or to incur needless risks. 

I have consumed more time than I intended, and thank the 
Senate for its courtesy in indulging me in these hasty remarks, 
and will close by commending to the Senate the doctrine of an 
elective commission." 



88 ABRAHAM LANSING 



THE STATE MUSEUM 

REMARKS OF SENATOR ABRAHAM LANSING ON THE BILL 
AUTHORIZING THE TRANSFER OF THE GREAT COL- 
LECTION TO THE STATE HALL 

The following speech, made in the Senate March 7, 1883. 
while the bill authorizing the transfer of the State Museum 
of Natural History to the State Hall was pending, by the 
Hon. Abraham Lansing, will prove interesting: 

"Mr. Chairman — In answering the question, as to the pur- 
pose of this bill, let me ask the attention of the Senate to a 
concurrent resolution, which I offered early in the session, and 
which passed both houses of the Legislature, calling on the 
trustees of the State Museum to report what additional accom- 
modations are necessary for the proper preservation and 
exhibition of the collections belonging to the State; and what 
measures should be taken for maintaining and conducting the 
museum in a condition of greater efficiency, and for render- 
ing it of greater value to the citizens of the State, together 
with plans for completing the publication of the Natural His- 
tory of the State. 

In response to that resolution the trustees of the museum, 
soon after its passage, sent a communication to the Legisla- 
ture, which was at once laid upon the desks of the Senators, 
wherein they set forth at length the needs of the museum, 
together with much other interesting and important informa- 



SPEECHES 89 

tion having relation to the subject. Accompanying the com- 
munication are letters from many of the most eminent 
scientific men at home and abroad, setting forth the great 
importance of the investigations which the State has made in 
its geological survey and the great value which attaches to them 
in the opinion of the scientific world. 

The trustees point out the fact that the collections of the 
Natural History of the State have so far increased that the 
present museum building has become entirely inadequate for 
their proper arrangement and display, and that more than 
50,000 specimens for which no proper accommodations can 
be afforded in the museum are placed in private buildings for 
which the State pays rent and where they are to a great extent 
inaccessible for the purposes of the museum. That the area 
afforded by the present building for the arrangement of speci- 
mens for exhibition is about 8,000 square feet, while the 
collections belonging to the State require for their display at 
least 21,000 square feet and that there are no proper accom- 
modations where the rough work of preparing the specimens 
for illustration and exhibition may be carried on. 

They also state that the present museum, by reason of the 
insecurity of the building in which it is placed, is in daily 
danger of being destroyed by fire, while the private buildings 
rented for the purpose of storing those specimens which have 
and can have no place in the State building at all, or elsewhere, 
where they can be properly accessible and useful, are equally 
insecure, and at a very recent date narrowly escaped destruc- 
tion by fire, accidentally kindled in one of them ; and I may add 
that these buildings are too remote from the fire department 



9 o ABRAHAM LANSING 

of this city and of too combustible a nature to encourage the 
hope that any of the specimens could be rescued if fire should 
make any considerable headway there. 

The trustees also point out the peculiar adaptation of the 
State House, which is now in greater part vacated, and which 
is, as soon as other accommodations can be provided in the 
Capitol for the departments of government still remaining 
there, to be entirely vacated, to the purposes of a museum of 
natural history and to the security and proper display of its 
valuable collections. 

They set forth the disadvantages with which the different 
departments of natural science, sustained and provided for by 
the State, are carried on under the present system of separate 
and independent work, without co-operation in their efforts, 
and the greater efficiency which must accrue to them from ren- 
dering these labors in kindred sciences conducive to each other 
and tributary to a common object. And inasmuch as the col- 
lections of the departments, or at least of some of them, go 
only in part to the State, it is suggested that the labors of each 
of these departments shall belong to the State, and, of course, 
that the collections made in the work shall be wholly its prop- 
erty. This suggestion is carried out by the provisions of this 
bill, and I beg to suggest, in addition to what is said by the 
trustees, that while I conceive it to be a most important part 
of the advantage derived by the people of the State, from the 
maintenance of these departments of geology, entomology and 
botany, that they provide for the communication of informa- 
tion, in reply to inquiries from those engaged in agricultural, 
mining and other pursuits which are dependent for intelligent 



SPEECHES 91 

and successful guidance upon the solution of questions arising 
in these branches of science, that it seems to be quite as im- 
portant to afford opportunity for personal inspection and 
investigation in the general line of the science itself, and espe- 
cially so in respect to its manifestations under the operation of 
local conditions. 

The importance of a better-regulated system which shall 
secure the prompt publication and distribution of the informa- 
tion obtained in these departments is also considered in this 
response, and the inadequacy and delays of the existing 
methods in these respects are explained, and the Legislature 
is asked to remedy these evils, not by authorizing greater 
expenditures or making larger appropriations, but by provid- 
ing for the expenditure of the moneys which shall be hereafter 
appropriated in a more intelligent and methodical way. And 
it is the purpose of the bill under consideration to place this 
whole matter of the printing and distribution of scientific re- 
ports and papers where it undoubtedly belongs — in the hands 
of the trustees of the museum. 

The other recommendations of the response relate to the 
publication of five volumes of works of paleontology for 
which materials have been obtained in the department of 
geology, and which are necessary to complete the series con- 
templated by the plans and expenditures of the State in that 
direction. The trustees dwell with emphasis upon the im- 
portance of completing this work, referring to the communica- 
tions which accompany their response, for an indorsement and 
corroboration of their views, and they ask that the charge of 
this publication may be committed to their hands and the nee- 



92 ABRAHAM LANSING 

essary appropriations made therefor, formally pledging their 
best efforts to finish the work in the briefest time and most 
economical and worthy manner. And I feel confident that I 
may promise for them, knowing, as I do, the good judgment, 
system and rare economy which prevails in all the affairs com- 
mitted to their care, that no penny of the money which shall 
be placed in their hands for the purposes of this bill will be 
expended without need or without adequate and valuable 
equivalent to the State. The bill provides for publication of 
the remaining five volumes of the paleontology of the State, 
during a period of five years, and commits the necessary an- 
nual appropriation for publication of one volume in each year 
to the hands of the trustees. And it is intended that, with the 
completion of the last essential volume of this most important 
and valuable series, the work of geological illustration shall 
cease, as that of geological exploration or survey has already 
practically ceased. 

In considering this latter topic it is very important to ob- 
serve, and I may appropriately call attention here to the fact, 
stating it on the testimony of the communications which ac- 
company this response, as well as on the authority of the 
treatises of the science, which are accessible to every one, that 
these investigations in the department of geology have, to the 
great renown of the State and to the credit of those through 
whose intelligence and industry they have been made, resulted 
in giving to that science a system which is acknowledged and 
adopted throughout the scientific world, and that this system, 
dependent as it is for its full development and completion upon 
the proper illustration and exhibition, as this bill intends, of 



SPEECHES 93 

the remaining material which has been obtained in the survey, 
is essential to the methods and classifications now in use in 
that science. And here I shall fail, utterly, to present the 
merits of this bill in this particular if I neglect to state, as an 
inducement to its immediate enactment into a law, a fact 
vouched for by the voice of geologists the world over, and 
especially emphasized in the entreaties made by them in regard 
to this measure, that there is but one man living who has the 
experience necessary to the adequate guidance of this work of 
illustration to its completion, namely, Professor James Hall, 
the State Geologist, by whose zeal and labor it has been devel- 
oped and carried to its present condition, and whom I am 
permitted to call, upon the authority and in the words of a no 
less distinguished investigator in this branch of natural science 
than Professor Barrande, of Bohemia, 'the great American 
paleontologist.' And there is another fact important in this 
connection, and which is regarded with deep concern by all 
devotees of science, as well as by those who appreciate the 
economic value of these works to the State, that in view of the 
advancing age of Professor Hall, his labors cannot be counted 
on for so many years that we can afford to lose any time by 
delay in availing ourselves of them. 

Now, I have but outlined some of the recommendations and 
considerations presented by this communication from the trus- 
tees of the museum. I commend the careful perusal of it and 
of the documents accompanying it to the attention of any one 
who entertains doubts on this subject, and I trust that no 
Senator will feel justified in voting against this bill which gives 
form to the suggestions made by the report without having, after 



94 ABRAHAM LANSING 

such perusal, and in spite of it, come to a conclusion that the 
measure is not such an one as the interests and honor of the 
State demand. 

This bill seeks to make useful and available to the State the 
results of its investigations in these branches of its natural 
history. It makes no new departure in legislation. It adopts 
no new or different theories from those which have heretofore 
prevailed. The State House has been already, by a concurrent 
resolution adopted by the two houses of the Legislature in 
the year 1881, devoted to the uses of the Museum of Natural 
History, and some portion of its collections has recently been 
stored there, and it is now proposed to carry out the design 
of this resolution by declaring the manner in which the build- 
ing shall be prepared and occupied, and by making the neces- 
sary appropriation therefor. And, as to the publication of the 
remainder of the series of works on paleontology, its pro- 
visions are identical with those of a bill which was passed by 
this Senate last year, but which, coming into the Assembly in 
the closing days of the session failed there, not through oppo- 
sition manifested to it, but because a vote could not be reached 
before the adjournment. The Legislature first manifested an 
appreciation of the usefulness of such explorations as would 
determine the value and extent of the mineral resources in the 
year 1827. In that year a law was passed, known as chapter 
230 of the Laws of 1827, by which it was attempted to secure 
to the State the benefit of such explorations, by offering in- 
ducements to individual enterprise to undertake them. The 
purpose declared by the act was 'to promote geological and 
mineral researches,' and it empowered the commissioners of 



SPEECHES 95 

the land office to grant to discoverers of mines, minerals and 
fossils, other than gold and silver, tracts of land in which such 
discoveries should be made, on exceptional and favorable 
terms. Whatever may have been the result of that policy the 
importance of such researches grew upon the public attention 
during the ensuing nine years to such an extent that the Legis- 
lature was prepared to engage the State, at its own expense, 
in regular and scientific investigations of this character, and 
it accordingly passed in the year 1836 a law which authorized 
the employment of a suitable number of competent persons to 
make, in the language of the act, 'An accurate and complete 
geological survey of the State, which shall be accompanied 
with proper maps and diagrams and furnish full and scientific 
descriptions of its rocks, soils and minerals and of its botanical 
and zoological productions, together with specimens of the 
same,' and it was directed that the maps, diagrams and speci- 
mens should be deposited in the State library, and specimens 
in other libraries of the State. That law appropriated an 
annual sum of $26,000 for four years to defray the expenses 
to be incurred under it. The appropriation was $11,000 per 
year more than the annual sum now asked for to complete the 
series of works which has grown out of the investigations 
then commenced. It extended over a period of four years, 
while this proposed publication is to extend over a period one 
year longer. And it is interesting to observe the amount of 
that appropriation in its relation to the wealth of the State at 
that time, as significant of the importance attached by the 
legislators of that day to the investigations for which they 
provided. I have looked to see who the men were in the 



96 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Legislature who gave the first impulse to these investigations, 
and I find that in the Senate of 1827 there were Silas Wright 
and John C. Spencer, Ambrose L. Jordan, Duncan McMartin, 
Cadwallader D. Colden, Peter R. Livingston and others, 
doubtless, worthy to hold seats with them in the same body. 
There was not a Senator Jacobs in that body to guide the 
counsels of the committee on finance, or preside in the absence 
of the Lieutenant Governor over the deliberations of the 
Senate. Had there been, I do not question that he would have 
reported favorably from his committee on the bill, which 
became a law, and voted with the majority to embark the State 
upon a career of scientific exploration. A Senator McCarthy 
was there, and while I have not examined to see how he voted, 
I cannot doubt that he gave his vote with Wright and Spencer 
and Livingston and the rest, against whose influence it is fair 
to presume the measure would not have become a law. 

The work of the survey was in 1840 extended for two years, 
and in the latter year provision was made for fitting and pre- 
paring rooms for a State museum in what was then the State 
Hall and is now the Geological Hall; and from that time to 
this, with the annual indorsement of the Legislature, the work 
of this survey and investigation has been continued by the 
State. 

By this work its natural history, or so much of that history 
as lies in the line of the investigations, has been unfolded and 
largely illustrated. The proofs of the accuracy of the re- 
searches, and the indications of our resources, are in our 
possession ; they are valuable both in themselves and for what 
they indicate and determine. This bill asks that they may be 



SPEECHES 97 

rendered still more useful to science and to those who depend 
upon science for the methods which they employ in the labor 
which engages them. It asks, also, that they may be removed 
from places of insecurity and from the risks which now sur- 
round them. 

During the period covered by these scientific explorations 
the State has prospered and its substantial wealth has rapidly 
increased. It stands in greatness and in resources without a 
rival. No one with accurate knowledge of the facts can doubt 
the value of these investigations of science in aiding the oper- 
ations of its agriculture. How important a factor in its pros- 
perity the mineral resources of the State are its statistics 
abundantly testify. Its iron, lead and copper and its mineral 
oils, its slate and marble, granite and limestone, its salt and 
gypsum form no insignificant sum in this great aggregate of 
wealth. 

Now, these fossils which we ask you to preserve and to 
exhibit in illustrated volumes were the open sesame by which 
you entered to this wealth. They are the keys by which you 
have unlocked the mysteries of the earth's crust, and to those 
who from motives of gain or information would explore the 
recesses of inorganic matter they still are guides. They have 
been of incalculable value to you, and they may, if you will, 
be of equally great value to you hereafter. No man, or men. 
or society or other State can duplicate them. No private enter- 
prise can, without your permission, or should, with it, as your 
substitute, make and distribute illustrations of them. The 
State, crowned with the laurels of great achievements and sur- 
rounded bv the evidences of its abundant resources, stands 



98 ABRAHAM LANSING 

before these mute messengers of inorganic nature, with power 
to give them voice. Science entreats it to do so, and urges 
you in pathetic and eloquent terms to hazard no longer the 
loss of your opportunity. The economic interests of the State 
require it of you. The fulfillment of the promise of a half 
century's investigations, to your own citizens and the world, 
enjoins it on you. The sum required is paltry and inconsid- 
erable in comparison with the interests involved and the bene- 
fits in view. If poor and overburdened, we might well make 
sacrifices to such an end, and with the measure of our pros- 
perity brimming over, there are no reasons which can justify 
us in neglecting the duty. 

These results, which we have gathered, are the guides to 
treasure houses of material wealth and our material interests 
demand that they shall be rendered complete and useful ; but 
aside from this, I think it should be enough that they are the 
mysterious footprints which mark the tread of the ages, — the 
voice of inorganic nature speaking in its different periods and 
distinguishing them; that in the study of the problems of 
organic life and unorganized matter they form an essential 
part in the groundwork of a history and aid in the confirma- 
tion of our theories of the creation." 



SPEECHES 99 



BURNS IN BRONZE 

UNVEILING A NOBLE STATUE IN WASHINGTON PARK, 
AUGUST 3O, l888 

In behalf of the park commission, the Hon. Abraham Lansing 
accepted the statue in these words : 

"Mr. Kinnear and Ladies and Gentlemen— I am requested 
by the board of trustees of Washington Park to accept this 
statue, in their name and on their behalf, with all the obliga- 
tion which the legacy of Miss McPherson imports. And I 
promise unhesitatingly for that board, and with entire confi- 
dence for its successors in office, that within the utmost 
possibilities of the trust which is delegated to them by law, it 
shall be preserved and perpetuated to the citizens of Albany 
in accordance with the design of the generous giver. 

I take pleasure in expressing to you, Mr. Kinnear, the 
opinion entertained without dissent by the members of the 
board, that you have fully complied with the injunctions of this 
behest, namely, 'to get a monument worthy of Robert Burns, 
an ornament to the park and an honor to the land of the 
donor's birth.' I tender to you their congratulations on the 
successful result of your efficient and zealous efforts in that 
respect; and I trust and believe that in it the expectation and 
design of this legacy will be realized ; that here, in the presence 
of this speaking likeness of Scotland's renowned bard, the 
citizens of Albany, without regard to lineage, and for genera- 



ioo ABRAHAM LANSING 

tions to come, will not only be moved by a feeling - of grateful 
acknowledgment towards their legator, but to renewed ad- 
miration and respect for the history and greatness of Scotland, 
which is the land of the birth of Robert Burns not only, but of 
Mary McPherson and of a long line of enterprising and 
patriotic and distinguished men and women, who have been in 
the past, and are in themselves and in their descendants in the 
present, a most important part of the career of this city, and 
who are cherished and memorable as a most essential element 
in every step of its progress, its prosperity and its renown. 

Nor can I doubt that at the feet of this statue, and in view of 
a work of art so admirable and expressive, and amidst scenes 
and surroundings so suitable, Albanians and others who by 
their invitation shall hereafter participate in the enjoyment 
which this park and statue will afford, will be prompted to new 
intimacy with all that is ennobling and elevating, as well as 
with that which is stirring and captivating in the verse of the 
bard who is more than any other the poet of unaffected human 
nature and mankind; whose versatile genius enters into the 
feeling of every condition of human life, and fires with en- 
thusiasm or moves with emotion the soul of both lettered and 
unlearned ; who was justified in dedicating his poems to 'the 
noblemen and gentlemen of Caledonia,' and wrote 'The Cot- 
ter's Saturday Night' ; who could create the scenes of 'Tarn 
O'Shanter' and pen 'The Epistle to a Young Friend' ; who 
stirs the soul with the martial strains of 'Bannockburn,' and 
fills the heart with the inimitable pathos of 'Highland Mary' 
and 'John Anderson, My Jo' ; who, if he wrote broad Scotch 
for Scotchmen, wrote 'Auld Lang Syne' for the world, and 



SPEECHES 101 

who is to Scotland surely, if not to America and the Anglo- 
Saxon speaking race, the Aesop of their poetry and the 
Anacreon of their song. 

And now, ladies and gentlemen, fellow-citizens of Albany, 
having accepted this statue, and this trust for your representa- 
tive board, and thereby for you, you will agree with me that 
it is still due to this occasion that some words be spoken ex- 
pressive of that gratification which you feel in common with 
the members of your board, growing out of the spirit, pur- 
pose and character of this gift to your park and the manner in 
which the desire of Miss McPherson has been accomplished. 

It is now nearly twenty years since by an act of the legisla- 
ture, and with the approbation of the people of Albany, this 
tract of land, then already devoted to public and burial pur- 
poses, was, in the language of the act, 'set apart and devoted 
to the purposes of a public park.' Of all the city's enterprises 
and undertakings, during that period at least, it is the one from 
which its citizens of all ages, classes and conditions have 
derived the most satisfaction and enjoyment; and, excepting 
their educational system, its privileges are those from which, 
of all their adventitious rights as citizens, they would most 
reluctantly part. 

It was a most happy inspiration of Miss McPherson to set 
up here in this garden of the people, the statue of a poet whose 
songs are 'household words' in our domestic lives, and whose 
lyre is also attuned so wonderfully to the beautiful in the 
natural world. 

It was a generous impulse which directed that, without limit 
of cost, this statue should be made worthy of the man it repre- 



102 ABRAHAM LANSING 

sents, ornamental to the park and an honor to Scotland, and 
it was a wise selection to place the execution of this behest in 
hands so capable. 

Much might be said on the subject which time will not per- 
mit, but you will join with me in saying for you, that you 
gratefully appreciate the spirit of this noble gift, and that you 
commend the result of the efforts of those who have had it in 
charge as the perfect fulfillment of a munificent and patriotic 
purpose. 

And you will permit me to pledge for you, to those who now 
have this statue in their care, your encouragement and co- 
operation in maintaining and preserving it in all its graceful 
outline and proportion, for yourselves, your posterity and 
successors in all time." 



SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE HON. ABRAHAM LANSING AT THE 

SIXTH ANNUAL BANQUET OF THE HOLLAND SOCIETY 

OF NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 1 3, 1 89 1 

Hon. Abraham Lansing responded to the toast, "The Dutch- 
man's Fireside." 

He said : "Mr. President, Gentlemen and Guests of the 
Holland Society — This toast, which is entitled to a leading 
and honorable place on the programme of any proper occasion, 
is especially worthy of such a position in the exercises of this 
evening. It is the first time in the history of the Holland 
Society that the Dutchman's fireside, in all its available 



SPEECHES 103 

branches, has been represented in these festivities. It has been 
the president's high privilege to allude to this fact, and to 
extend a graceful welcome to that fairer presence which now 
first honors these occasions; and it seems to me not inappro- 
priate to my theme that I should offer to him, and to the 
officers of the society and to the honored chairman and mem- 
bers of the dinner committee the congratulations which I 
believe all of us feel to be due on this departure from settled 
usage, which is a recognition of the progressive tendencies and 
spirit of our age, and which is a promise of the excellence of 
these annual reunions in the future, as it is also an assertion 
of their worthiness in the past. 

There is nothing, Mr. President and Gentlemen, which 
appeals more forcibly to the mind than a suggestion of our 
home. It is the center of man's deepest and purest affections. 
It is the source of his greatest earthly happiness. It is the 
absorbing aim and object of his individual and collective 
energies. Our country itself is but an aggregation of our 
homes and the powers and duties of government in their last 
results are but for their protection. The arts of war and the 
achievements of statesmanship and diplomacy fail of their 
primal and real purpose if the home is not established upon a 
sure and stable basis and does not find that security for itself 
and for what is incidental to it which is essential to its welfare. 
And to what purpose are the labors of individual man, or 
individual men collectively, which do not tend directly or in- 
directly to the happiness and prosperity of the home? The 
central feature and charm of the home is the fireside. It 
stands for the glow and fragrance, the warmth and coloring of 



io4 ABRAHAM LANSING 

the home life, its comforts and happiness, its leisure and 
repose. 

But the fireside represents something more than these. It 
stands for a supreme influence both in the history of an indi- 
vidual and of a nation, for it is also the true source and 
nursery of character. It is the very well-spring of a nation's 
life and development. And this is so, whether its light 'comes 
blinking bonnily from a wee bit ingle,' gleams through the 
bays and holly boughs on oaken halls or is reflected from the 
blue and white tiling of a Dutchman's chimney-corner. And 
when I approach this particular fireside, the Dutchman's fire- 
side, to contemplate it with reference to what it signifies in the 
formation of character, and in that respect what it stands for 
in the history of civilized man, I am sure that I exaggerate 
nothing in saying that I find myself in the presence of a sub- 
ject which sounds the depth of a political philosophy and ethics 
as profound, as momentous, as grand and beneficent as any 
which has ever been evolved from the mind of man. It was 
something deeply wrought into the nature of the Hollander of 
the sixteenth century, which enabled him, through sacrifices 
and achievements which are almost incredible and with a zeal 
which never doubted through the lifetime of more than a 
generation of men, to liberate his country from the intolerance 
of Spain. The Republic of the Netherlands was the outcome 
of the Dutchman's character, and the Dutchman's character 
was the outcome of the Dutchman's fireside. Men became 
capable of the heroic and unwavering fortitude exhibited in 
that long and unique struggle, not merely because principles 
of human right and justice were involved in the contest, but 



SPEECHES 105 

because those principles were planted at the root, had grown 
with the growth and ripened into the strength of human life — 
because they were fireside teachings. The struggle which they 
made was for fireside truths which were vigorous because they 
had been there inculcated, and which were strong and in- 
vincible because they were felt to be the truths of common 
justice and the rights of man. 

The triumph was not for those that bore the burden of the 
conflict merely, but for all mankind. No nation lays a stronger 
claim to the credit of having at the critical period and with 
right discrimination accurately discerned and firmly estab- 
lished the just limitations in governmental polity than the 
nation in whose honor this society is named, of whose achieve- 
ments it is our privilege to speak to-night, and the lessons and 
examples of whose history we may usefully inculcate at all 
times; and in this respect, and for the boon of these achieve- 
ments, the gratitude should never be forgotten which is due to 
the Dutchman's fireside. 

The Dutchman's fireside has its history and its teaching in 
America as well as in Europe. Those who shaped the system of 
our own Republic were not blindly impelled by the tendencies 
and spirit of the age in which they lived ; they were learned and 
earnest and appreciative students of the lessons which had gone 
before them, and I believe it may be truly said that he who would 
most accurately understand their spirit and purpose may easiest 
seek them in the precepts and models which grew out of the hon- 
est yearnings and principles of the Dutchman's home teachings. 

The Dutch were not among the earliest explorers of the 
United States. There had been many an experimental voyage 



106 ABRAHAM LANSING 

by the navigators of other countries — it was, so to speak, quite 
four o'clock in the afternoon of those early explorations before 
the Dutchman opened his eyes to the availability of these lands 
beyond the seas. It is true, however, that he planted here one 
of the very earliest permanent colonies, and it must be said 
of him that if he formed his judgment with deliberation, there 
was no error in his conclusion. His first voyage hither, made 
not otherwise than in the interest of commercial enterprise, 
resulted not merely in experiment ; it became a successful and 
remunerative undertaking. When the 'Wassende Maan,' that 
is to say, the Dutch ship Crescent, starting on her memorable 
voyage from Amsterdam, to add the Hollander's contribution 
to the sum of other explorations here, was tossed for many 
months upon the seas and along our Arctic and northern 
coasts, she stayed not in her wanderings until she had found 
this incomparable Manhattan Bay, turned her prow northward 
thence, and at the foot of the hills now crowned by the Capitol 
of our Empire State, landed a boat's crew, made a lodgment 
and built a fire. On the first of last October, possibly a day or 
two earlier, it was two hundred and eighty-one years ago. It 
was the Dutchman's first fireside in America and the inception 
of the Empire State. If at the pilgrim's approach 

'The breaking waves dashed high 
On a stern and rock bound coast, 

And the woods against a stormy sky 
Their giant branches tossed' ; 

if the Cabots found their anchorage among the polar ice- 
bergs on the frozen Arctic shores; if the disasters of the early 
Spanish settlements in Florida are among the saddest records 



SPEECHES 107 

of our colonization ; if the enthusiastic courage of Sir Walter 
Raleigh and the genius of the indomitable Captain John Smith 
alone preserved the new colony at Jamestown from the mis- 
fortunes of Roanoke, all nature held out a welcome to the 
Hollanders on the upper Hudson. Before them spread the 
graceful outlines of a river unrivalled in the picturesqueness 
of its natural beauties. From the Narrows to the Normans 
Kill the primeval forests hung all their autumn banners out. 
From the shores of Jersey and the island of Manhattan ; from 
the Highlands and the Katskills and the sloping shores above, 
the gathered fragrance of the summer enveloped their way like 
incense on their journey, and joined the red men of the wilder- 
ness in the welcome which never lost its friendly spirit. 

And so from this first fireside began the fortunate career of 
the Dutchman in America. It would not be my purpose, if 
it were my privilege, to trace the history of that first European 
fireside on the Hudson, but it is at least due to it that I should 
say that its subsequent career illustrated the tolerant and catho- 
lic teachings which had their place at the Dutchman's fireside 
in the Fatherland ; and that beyond all other established colonies 
in our country, through its just and amicable dealings with the 
aborigines, founded on the principles of those home teachings, 
it solved without a discordant incident that most difficult of 
all our early problems — the Indian problem ; and I am sure 
that you will agree with me if I add that, if it had achieved no 
other renown than that of having given to the country and the 
world the example and services of grand old Philip Schuyler, 
it must stand forever crowned with an imperishable fame. 

To follow out the parallels in the history of our own country 



108 ABRAHAM LANSING 

with those of the history of the Netherlands is a useful and 
instructive study. Let me allude to a single one of them, 
which seems pertinent to the subject of the fireside. The 
Dutchmen can neither claim the glory nor share the responsi- 
bility for the doctrine of universal suffrage. It had been a 
part neither of their creed nor practice at home. They incul- 
cated and provided universal education so far as it was in their 
power, and they regarded the suffrage as a privilege to be 
acquired through the opportunities thus afforded; but the 
Dutch mother at her fireside laid to the heart of her children 
that fable of the Grecian Aesop, illustrated by the bundle of 
sticks, and told them that each stick, however complete a unit 
of itself, gained resistless and unconquerable strength when 
combined in the unity of the bundle. The teaching found 
expression in a wider sphere in the 'Eendracht maakt Macht' 
of Holland and in the 'E pluribus Unum' of America. It is 
the principle which underlies and sustains the entire fabric of 
our form of government. It is the principle of that admirable 
adjustment in the powers and duties of an extended govern- 
ment, which, while it reserves to local care and local direction 
that which is of local character, concedes to a general power 
the government of matters of general concern. It is the doc- 
trine of State rights and municipal rights, vitalized by ex- 
clusive authority within their own spheres, and subject to and 
supported by the strength and power of a government at large. 
It was the principle underlying the structure of the Nether- 
lands. It is the key-stone of the arch of our own system. It 
gives us our security at home and our strength and respect- 
ability as a nation abroad." 



SPEECHES 109 



THE DUTCH SANTA CLAUS 

REMARKS OF THE HON. ABRAHAM LANSING AT THE PAAS 
FESTIVAL IN NEW YORK, APRIL 1 9, 1 892 

In publishing the proceedings of the St. Nicholas Society of 
New York at its Paas festival, the last issue of the New 
Amsterdam Gazette says: "Speaking of Santa Claus, the 
Hon. Abraham Lansing, of Albany, N. Y., said : 

'We know St. Nicholas as the patron of travelers and 
strangers, in other words, as the patron of hospitality in its 
truest and most literal sense. But there is another and even 
more attractive and important character in which he is known 
to us, and that is as Santa Claus, the guardian and friend of 
children, and it is in this character that I wish to speak of him. 
Santa Claus is an embodiment of human attributes and their 
exponent. We may justly claim for the design and purpose, 
which are responsible for his being, that they have realized in 
his creation not only a pleasing, but a noble conception of 
human character. He is presented to us as a pattern, not as 
a preceptor. He does not simply teach the lesson of benev- 
olence and kindness, he illustrates them by his deeds. He is 
the model of an active, discriminating, practical generosity, 
imparting wholesome truths by means of his own excellent 
and wholesome example. And he is sui generis. In all the 
range of heathen mythology and attributes of later saints and 



no ABRAHAM LANSING 

representatives of frolic and merry-making and human plea- 
sure, he has, so far as I can see, neither rival nor competitor. 
Kris Kringle is Santa Claus himself. His realm is that of 
childhood and his mission is to mold its plastic mind and direct 
the formative processes of its character and, if I accurately 
recall the traditions of my childhood, he is the friend of all 
children, but he is the discriminating benefactor of those who 
are reasonably deserving. He is an admonition both to parents 
and their offspring and, if the lessons of his coming fail in any 
instance of their purpose, it is not because of defects in his 
plan or lack of wisdom in his method. He stirs the expectant 
world of childhood with the pleasures of anticipation and 
hope; coming, as other substantial blessings and really great 
events are apt to come, silently, he arrives on tip-toes in the 
night-time ; locks cannot exclude nor doors withhold him from 
his purposes. He surmounts all obstacles and fills that ex- 
pectant world with bright illusions which, when riper years 
have dispelled them, charm the memory with happy recollec- 
tions and bless the character with wholesome results. He is 
the joyous energetic emissary of Christmas and filled with its 
spirit, and his own heartiness and happiness are an illustration 
of the pleasures of unselfishness. Analyze him as you will, his 
character and his purposes are without a flaw. He is sound, 
honest, excellent, from his head to his feet, and his example 
and influence are wholesome and beneficial through and 
through. Now, it has been a fashion to make merry over the 
Dutchman's peculiarities, but it occurs to me that they are 
peculiarities which are capable of realizing both in fancy and 
fact just such complete and excellent characters as that of this 



SPEECHES in 

delightful old friend of our childhood. We judge a mechanic 
by his works. You cannot, as a rule, judge a Dutchman by his 
professions, for he seldom makes them ; you must judge him as 
he asks always to be judged, by the result of his labors. And 
it seems to me very plain that no intelligence but that of a very 
high order, and no manhood but a very sound manhood, could 
have conceived and realized this salutary and beautiful illusion 
of Santa Claus. And the point which I wish particularly to 
make to-night is that Santa Claus is a Dutch creation. He 
comes straight from that elder Amsterdam, his headquarters 
during his earthly sojourn, and if you take away from him his 
thoroughly Dutch characteristics you ruin him. If he might 
be made attractive in a Quaker's broad brim or a Puritan's 
ruff, he would not be Santa Claus. If it were possible to 
imagine such a calamity as his figuring in the guise of a court 
jester, the role of harlequin, or in the character of King Car- 
nival, or as the lord of Misrule, he could thus become no 
substitute for himself. If you and I accepted him, childhood 
would repudiate him. If with grosser tastes or fondness for 
more excessive pleasures we should transform him into a 
Merry Andrew or mythological Bacchus, in the bright realm 
of childhood nevertheless, which holds the keys of the future 
and which is the fountain-head of moral empire, there could be 
no such Santa Claus and no such substitute for him. 

But Santa Claus has a virility which resists all change. 
Those men of New England, our brethren — because few of 
us, if any, have not a liberal infusion of Yankee blood in our 
veins — and for this reason it seems fair to conclude, being, as 
it were, half and half, and seeing, if not precisely double, at 



ii2 ABRAHAM LANSING 

least with two eyes, and so more clearly than in the cyclopean 
or one-eyed method, and thus more likely to judge without 
bias upon matters affecting the separate races; those men of 
New England who persist in finding the early history of this 
great State in the veritable works of Diedrich Knickerbocker, 
as there may be those who prefer to take the history of Eng- 
land from "Gulliver's Travels," or the "Tale of a Tub," and 
the history of Spain from the adventures of Don Quixote, and 
their knowledge of the common law from the Comic Black- 
stone; those men of New England whose forefathers, aided 
by the fleets and armies of Great Britain, found themselves 
possessed of the power to make a conquest of this beloved 
island of Manhattan, and therefore promptly made it; those 
men of New England must admit that their ancestors bore 
with a heavy hand upon the quaint customs of the conquered 
Dutchmen. They fell afoul furiously of the Dutchman's gable 
ends, declaring that they were not after the methods of New 
England and out of good form, and mal apropos to the public 
streets, till, yielding to the ridicule and bad example, the gable 
ends and the quaint stoops and dormer windows and the red 
tiling which softened the glare of the midday light and caught 
the glow of the rising and setting sun faded out of view, and 
the streets of New York never grew into those of a Nurem- 
berg, or a type of the old Amstel, or a model of The Hague. 
And do as he would, the Dutchman never could prevent the 
Yankee from marrying his daughters, and so was himself 
changed, and his avoirdupois shrank, and he grew long-limbed 
and sharp-edged, speaking with a nasal emphasis and walking 
with a tread reminding one of 



SPEECHES 113 

"The wolf's long gallop, which can tire 
The hound's deep hate, the hunter's ire." 

And the isters and Schiedams became fewer, and there was 
no longer sapaan at night, and the nutmegs came to have a 
flavor of pine, and the wares of Connecticut and Massachusetts 
absorbed the markets, until the conquerors, reflecting upon 
the present and recalling the past, were able to exclaim, in the 
fullness of conquest and triumph, "Nous avons change tout 
cela." 

But there was an institution which would not go, although 
it had its narrow escapes, and that was the institution of 
Christmas. And there was a personality which would not 
budge, and that was Santa Claus. He could neither be 
changed nor transformed, nor ridiculed out of court, nor inter- 
married. He had come to stay, and he is here to-day, and will 
remain so long at least as children shall rule their parents in 
this favored city, and I think they always will ; so long at least 
as the St. Nicholas society shall preserve his traditions and 
revere his memory; and so long at least as the lessons of zeal 
and joyousness and kindness and unselfishness are deemed 
worthy to be taught. 

And now to those who prefer to take the character of the 
forefathers of New York city and State from the legends of 
Sleepy Hollow, and are disposed to be censorious or mirthful 
at their expense, carefully remembering to refer them to the 
testimony of that learned and excellent and impartial Hol- 
lander, Chief Justice Charles P. Daly of New York, and of 
that other Dutchman, the late T. B. O'Callaghan of Albany, 
we may claim at least that they were of the race which origi- 



ii 4 ABRAHAM LANSING 

nated Santa Claus. And when the origin of the common 
school system, or of other principles are disputed, which 
underlie the government of this or other States, referring 
again to the testimony of a Hollander born of veritable New 
England stock, the Hon. Andrew S. Draper of Albany, late 
superintendent of public instruction in this State, and to that 
of another, whose ancestors came from "the banks and braes 
of bonny Doon," Mr. Douglas Campbell, of this city recently, 
now of Schenectady, and knowing that Dutchmen gave as 
early an exemplification of those principles as any, we have a 
right to say that they were quite capable of originating them 
who did originate Santa Claus. The prejudices which would 
have ostracised Santa Claus long since wore themselves out 
and he dwells now, I am sure, in the hearts at least of all New 
Yorkers, whatever may be their lineage; and, if I may be 
allowed to adopt the sentiment of the poet laureate of England 
in his welcome years ago to the present Princess of Wales, 

"Sea-king's daughter from over the sea, 
Norman and Saxon and Dane are we ; 
But all of us Danes in our welcome to thee, 
Alexandra." 

I believe I may truly say that, while we are English and 
Irish and Scotch and Dutch, we are all of us one in our 
homage to Santa Claus.' " 



SPEECHES 115 



RESPONSE TO A TOAST AT THE DINNER OF THE HOLLAND 

SOCIETY, GIVEN IN HONOR OF GOVERNOR ROOSEVELT, 

AT THE FORT ORANGE CLUB, JANUARY 24, 1 899 

"I am disposed to claim the honor of a three-fold announce- 
ment : through the programme for the evening ; by His Honor, 
the Mayor; and by our esteemed and most worthy presiding 
officer. 

The difficulty in making a proper response to this toast 
arises from the eloquence of the theme itself. The explana- 
tory notes, which accompany the toast, guard the Mayor's 
prerogatives as sponsor for the city of Albany as a body poli- 
tic, but they do not lighten— they emphasize — the obligation 
to speak of its citizens as individuals, and of that common 
impulse and effort of theirs through which the body politic 
has derived its character and standing. Whether the response, 
therefore, should be without the limitations prescribed, that is 
to say, for the city and all that the term implies, or for the citi- 
zen, his customs and his character — in the words of the notes 
'for the city as the home of the olekoeks and gable-ends of other 
days' — it presents an attractive field of inquiry and imposes an 
important duty. And the obligation is in no way diminished by 
the fact that it is an obligation to the Holland Society, which in 
this branch of its membership has so excellent a right to speak 
for those who have shaped this city's early career and history. 

There hangs upon the walls of one of our dwellings, not far 
from where we are assembled, the three-quarter length portrait 
of one of Albany's early residents, with which I am quite 



n6 ABRAHAM LANSING 

familiar. The portrait is of a man in the three-cornered hat, 
periwig and street garb of the latter part of the eighteenth 
century, a trim and decorous figure with ruffled shirt front and 
lace cuffs, holding a cane, useful seemingly from its model and 
caliber for both offensive and defensive emergencies, the in- 
evitable leather thong pendant from its top, after the manner 
of those days. This cane, supported in the left hand and 
turned backwards and caught under the left arm, has a decided 
tendency to emphasize the characteristics of a face by no means 
wanting in the indications of a resolute character, and I ven- 
ture with deference to add, in this respect as well, as notably 
perhaps in some others, not unlike that of the present governor 
of New York, and I venture further to observe, wearing 
glasses as that governor does. 

This portrait was painted in 1790, or within the six succeed- 
ing years thereafter, and the subject of it was at the time 
Mayor of this city. The original of the portrait which I have 
been tempted to describe with something of detail, for the 
reason that it seems to present a picture from a phase of the 
actual life of the city of that day, was by no means a carpet- 
bagger. Fifty-five or sixty years before the date of the por- 
trait he was born here of resident parentage. We thus carry 
him back well towards the close of the seventeenth century, 
and by showing the birthplace of his parents might go further 
still. His children and grandchildren have gone to meet him 
in the silent realm beyond the confines of earth, but there are 
great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of his in 
the membership of the Holland Society and they are here — 
some of them — to-night, to confirm the right of the Society 



SPEECHES 117 

to speak for our city, at least by a sort of prescription in 
regard to its early days. It is a part of the tradition concern- 
ing this representative citizen that he dwelt in a well-appointed 
house, built of Dutch bricks, its roof covered with Dutch tile 
and presenting its gable ends to the street; and there were to 
be found without doubt therein, at the right season and in the 
approved form of the period, the Dutch olekoeks, as well as 
other incidents of good cheer and comfort, of which the 
olekoek in those days was suggestive. From these outlines 
may be filled in something of the details of his public and 
domestic ways, which may be said, I believe, to be fairly 
typical of the lives and customs of the public men and well- 
to-do citizens of Albany at his time. 

There are two suggestions which occur to me in reference 
to the city as being apropos to an occasion in honor of the 
Governor of the State. The first is in regard to Albany itself 
— its history, standing and character. The other is in regard 
to Albany in its relations to the State as its capital city. Some- 
times the duties and responsibilities of the city are confounded 
with those of the State of which it is the seat of government, 
and then the city is apt to get an allowance of censure, and 
possibly, although less frequently, of praise, to which it is not 
altogether entitled. 

Some years since I remember greeting here a non-resident, 
a lady, whose practice it was to return to Albany at intervals ; 
meeting her one autumn day on the State's domain under the 
very shadows of the Capitol and surrounded everywhere by 
evidences of the work which was then going on upon it, I was 
somewhat surprised at her remarking with a rather serious 



n8 ABRAHAM LANSING 

countenance that the Albanians impressed her more and more, 
from time to time, as she returned to the city, as displaying a 
lamentable lack of enterprise. I had been accustomed to see- 
ing suggestions of that nature in the columns of the Albany 
newspapers, and even to hearing them from an occasional 
fellow citizen, but was not prepared to expect them from 
strangers whom I had generally found appreciative rather than 
censorious in this respect. Upon inquiry if there were any 
matter in particular which she had in mind, I was informed 
that any other city in the world than Albany would years ago 
have completed the Capitol building. 

Beyond question there are duties and obligations resting 
upon our city which are imposed simply by the fact that it is 
the seat of government. Of these obligations and duties, and 
especially as to the manner in which they have been fulfilled, 
it is not my purpose to speak. Whether Albany has in the 
individual career of its citizens and in its public career as a 
municipality; in its patriotism and loyalty to the State and 
nation in time of need; in its educational and scientific enter- 
prises, its charities and benevolences ; in its parks and public 
undertakings from the days of its Relief Bazaars in the time 
of the Rebellion, nay, from its earliest days to its latest im- 
portant project for the public good — the erection of the pro- 
posed new hospital, now nearly completed, for which our own 
presiding officer of to-night is so largely responsible ; and in all 
those respects which evince zeal for the public good, been 
mindful of its own duty and honor, and of the dignity and 
honor of the great Empire State, of which it is the chosen 
center of government, it behooves others rather than its citi- 



SPEECHES 119 

zens to declare. It has always seemed to me, however, in the 
light of the political history of our State, that Albany had 
become its Capital City through the deliberate and sober judg- 
ment of those whose right and duty it was to make that choice, 
and by a clear consensus of public sentiment by which that 
judgment was approved. Without the adventitious aid derived 
from this selection, it must have been a flourishing community. 
It may be doubted, in the light of modern days at least, 
whether its true prosperity has not been retarded rather than 
advanced by that aid. But that it was the predestined seat 
of government seems, in the light of the political history of 
the State, inevitable. It was the selected trading-post of the 
earliest days of the Colony; it was the objective point of the 
supreme strategic movement of the armies of the mother coun- 
try for the subjugation of the colonies in the War of the 
Revolution; it was and is the practical head of river naviga- 
tion; it was and is the natural terminus of each of the great 
artificial waterways which stretched out to the west and north 
for the commerce of the great lakes. 

The seat of government in the early days of the coming 
empire went tentatively from place to place — from New York 
to Kingston, from Kingston to Poughkeepsie, and so back and 
forth, and only came to have a local habitation and a name 
when by the force of a certain political gravity it became per- 
manently established here. From this natural center of its 
governmental power the State has risen in a rapid career of 
political influence and strength and business achievement, for 
which the world has hardly a parallel. The enlightened legis- 
lation which established our means of communication by land 



120 ABRAHAM LANSING 

and water; the great body of laws under which finance and 
trade and commerce and manufactures have found their oppor- 
tunity; the decrees of the highest State tribunals, which form 
the body of its common law; the codifications and revisions of 
the common and statute law, the inspiration and model of so 
much that is best in kindred law of our general government 
and of the individual States; and the political acts and edicts 
which have sustained and rendered possible this transcendent 
career have had their radiating center in this city — almost, if 
not quite, the earliest of our land. We can almost trace here 
the footprints of those who gave form and substance to those 
movements and measures, — the rulers, statesmen and jurists 
whose names and deeds are part of the renown of both State 
and Nation. The interest with which these events have in- 
vested the scenes in which they had their source and political 
being belongs to the State as well as to the city. To preserve 
and cherish them is the patriotic duty of both. 

These interdependent relations of a capital city and State 
are in these and in other respects the proper concern of both 
those who represent the State and the city which is the locum 
tenens of the State's authority. That our State recognizes 
the value of a suitable physical manifestation of its political 
importance and supremacy is now manifest in its completed 
capitol. All honor to the firm hand and intelligent purpose 
of that Governor who resolutely caused the last stone to be 
laid upon the final trowel of cement in the completion of the 
work — bringing to this city and to the State, out of the con- 
fusion and disorganizing influences of more than twenty years 
of building operations, the best example and satisfaction of a 
finished structure." 



CAMP ALBANY 



CAMP ALBANY 

THE following log book was written by Mr. Lansing from 
Camp Albany on the Ristigouche, during the summer 
vacations. It is inspired by a rare love of and communion with 
nature and portions of it are of a high order of literature. As 
a prelude to it the following extract descriptive of the region is 
taken by permission of Mrs. Dean Sage from the book by the 
late Dean Sage on "The Ristigouche and its Salmon Fishing." 

"The Ristigouche River, which forms the dividing line 
between the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, is over 
200 miles in length, with four large tributaries, each more than 
sixty miles long. It flows in a generally northeast direction, 
and broadens very gradually near its mouth into the Bay of 
Chaleurs. 

It is a noble stream, with no falls or rapids in its whole 
course that a canoe cannot surmount. Its numerous windings 
and abrupt turns, so favorable for forming good salmon pools, 
also give a variety and choice of beautiful scenery which it is 
rare to find on any river. There is no mile of the Ristigouche 
above Matapedia which has not some peculiar charm of its 
own, outside of the wonderful clearness of its waters and the 
different forms they assume in their rapid journey to the 
great Gulf of St. Lawrence, — from the long flat, where they 
move with a glassy and tranquil smoothness, but a swiftness 



124 ABRAHAM LANSING 

that has to be felt to be recognized, to the pools, with their 
thousand little ripples dancing in the sunlight, the white-crested 
rapid with its waves of might, and the swirling eddies rushing 
over the rock strewn bottom, where the great salmon rest on 
their upward way. Of these captivating interruptions to an 
uniform flow the Ristigouche has an unusual number, which 
account largely for its excellence as an abiding place for 
salmon. Indeed we wonder why any of the fish which enter 
its mouth turn off into the brown stream of the Matapedia, or 
the slender thread of the Upsalquitch." 




<j s 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 

1883 

June 12. 
Left Albany at 1.15 p. m., reached Montreal 10.20, on time. 
Put up at the Windsor Hotel for the night and next day. 

June 14. 
We reached Camp at 7.15 p. m.; took possession and slept 
in it that night. 

June 18. 
Camp Albany stands at an elevation of some 40 feet above 
the Ristigouche. It looks out a little to the easterly of the 
north star. It is a building 25 feet square, with a roofed 
verandah nine feet in width on every side. Its interior is 
divided by a partition from front to rear into two nearly equal 
parts and the partition rises from floor to roof. The easterly 
half has a partition subdividing it laterally into equal parts, 
the cross partition being some eight or nine feet high. It has 
its chimney on the westerly side. It has a fireplace of no mean 
proportions, which has never smoked to our knowledge, and 
we have tested it at all hours. Its large room has two opposite 



126 ABRAHAM LANSING 

doors, entering from the verandah front and rear, three win- 
dows, two closets, side by side at the rear end, and the fire- 
place has a crane. The smaller rooms have each two windows. 
The chimney is by common consent a good one, and the roof 
by like consent a bad one, but it is well framed and the defect 
is in the shingling, as no doubt we shall ascertain to a certainty 
in the first hard rain. On the whole Camp Albany is satis- 
factory and its owners with good fortune and fair fishing lay 
up great stores of expectation for rest and comfort and enjoy- 
ment beneath its roof. 



June 27. 
Larry says there is a wild man in every forest. Once on 
the Upsalquitch 14 were in camp at night and near morning 
they lay sleeping with their feet to the fire which had nearly 
gone out. He was cold and restless, got up and looked around, 
began to be hungry and thought he would "boil the kettle" ; 
then he thought he would light a pipe. Meanwhile he sat 
down by the smoldering fire, filled his pipe and was fumbling 
in the ashes for a coal for a light, when he felt a grasp on his 
shoulder. He made light of that, thinking it one of the men, 
but as he looked up the grasp left his shoulder, and he found 
his hands clasped by the hands of a man who had on a dark 
coat which came down to the knees quite snug. The man then 
made a motion as if to grasp Larry by the face, when Larry 
jumped up quickly and the man had gone. He searched the 
camp in vain for him. Next morning the teamster left the 
camp, declining to remain in that neighborhood longer. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 127 

Wednesday, July 4. 
Gave our Indians some delicacies for their dinner and told 
them they must have a good dinner for the Fourth of July, 
and also gave them a glass of whiskey all round. Larry 
declined to take any, but on second thought, being Independ- 
ence Day, yielded in honor of the occasion and drank the 
health of the President of the United States. 

Thursday, July 5. 
My Lord (Russell) and his son put not in their appearance, 
albeit beds and right good ones were prepared for them, and 
a dinner got ready which was as good, you may be bound, as 
any they had : 

Bill of rare 

Ox Tail Soup Claret Apollinaris 

Fish Bread and Butter 

Salmon Boiled, Drawn Butter Sauce 

Salmon Broiled 

Meat 

Roast Beef 

Mashed Potatoes Tomatoes Pickles 

Champagne and Claret 

Entrees 

Cold Boiled Salmon Mayonnaise Sauce Olives 

Dessert 

Preserved Peaches, Figs, Crackers and Cheese 
Coffee, Otard 



128 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Trout were reserved for their Lordships' breakfast. Sage 
said that a gentleman from Buffalo, fishing Alfred's pool 
below Camp Harmony, struck a good-sized fish there, gaffed 
him and brought him into the canoe; after the gaff was re- 
moved, the fish jumped, broke the casting line and got into the 
water. The next day, Florence, in a pool known as the camp 
pool at Harmony, caught the same fish with fly in his mouth, 
and about five inches of the casting line, and the wound of 
the gaff in him which had begun to granulate and heal. 



Saturday, July 7. 

There were sand flies in camp this wet morning, plenty of 
them. D. O. (Dudley Olcott) assumed that none would be on 
the river, and went to fish in that faith, without the usual 
preparations for them. Sand flies have an especial fondness 
for a man on the beach with both hands employed with a 
salmon on his fly. He landed both his fish in good style, but 
it was a case of endurance worthy of the reward he received. 
He swallowed one of the flies however. Whatever extra com- 
pensation there was in that, he had a fit of coughing for the 
achievement. Larry says it is often a good thing to keep one's 
mouth shut. 

The workmen, when building the camp, dug a hole some 
ten feet deep on the east side, from which they took sand, and 
left the hole unfilled. Looking into it the other day, we saw 
some toads, the skeleton of some animal and two mice. The 
mice were a bright brown upon the back with a lighter shade 
of brown or grey on the sides and belly. They had tails over 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 129 

a foot in length, which dragged on the ground and tapered at 
the end to a fine point, round with short hair like the tail of a 
rat; the ears and head and eyes were those of a mouse; the 
hind legs were long in proportion to the front, and their jump- 
ing abilities considerable. These they displayed in efforts to 
jump to some footing on the side of the excavation, as if to 
climb out. These seemed to be young. D. O. said they were 
male and female, and the young had been born in the hole; 
one little fellow, looking like a diminutive blind mole, ran 
about at the bottom of the hole, but seemed to give out and die 
before we stopped observing them. ^ r e placed a branch of a 
tree on an incline from bottom to top in the hole and one of 
them, the male probably, apparently soon found his way out 
to the upper air on it. The other, presumably the female, con- 
tinued its jumping and ran about in frantic efforts to escape. 
At times it gnawed its own tail, until it was chafed and bloody 
in places. Going back afterwards, it had gone, probably 
escaping by the branch ; the young lay dead in the pit. We had 
not seen that kind of mice before. Larry says they have a 
little rat or mouse hereabout as long as your thumb, but he 
did not seem to know much of long-tailed mice. The skeleton 
was possibly larger than that of a rabbit. Larry says the 
skeleton may have been that of a horse somewhat withered. 



Sunday, July 8. 
The new City Hall at Albany has been struck by lightning 
during our absence, and the old Capitol is to be demolished 



130 ABRAHAM LANSING 

before winter sets in. This means a park for the new Capitol, 
and was an object of A. L.'s in the Senate last winter. 

Men never breathed sweeter air or drank purer water, ate 
better salmon or relished more their meals, slept sounder, slept 
on sweeter beds, enjoyed more the sparkling water and the 
wild woods, or the luxury of taking salmon, and of fishing in 
the hope of getting them; or were freer, more contented, 
happier and less troubled by care or anxiety than we have been 
during this our first stay in Camp Albany. Care and trouble 
and anxiety have no home in these woods. They cannot follow 
one here, whatever may be their pressure elsewhere. To stay 
here all summer would be a delight, but to go back to our 
occupations is a duty and to return to one's family and home 
is a yearning which always accompanies us and prevails in the 
end over all enjoyments. 

The birds sing gaily about us, the wind gently fans us with 
a refreshing breeze. The woods exhale delicious fragrance. 
The transparent water moves briskly over the bright river 
bed. The mysterious forests, dense and solemn, send up their 
incense heavenward and mingle their perceptible hymn with 
the rhythm of the moving water. The roof of our picturesque 
camp shelters us and the piazza courts the breeze; no un- 
friendly sound grates upon our ears, no uncongenial sight 
offends our eyes. The day is perfect, and it is Sunday, and 
we rest from our labors and our sports. Flies and black ones 
float in the air, but to-day they also "give us a rest." 

Bathed and shaved, attired, if not attractive, in our very 
best, at 5.45 p. m. we stepped into a canoe to fulfill our dinner 
engagement at six. Larry, in salmon-colored hat band, and 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 131 

Barney paddled us,— the waters in holiday trim also. It 
seemed as if they rejoiced to receive their burden; limpid, as 
purest mountain brook, they lashed the rocks beyond and the 
beach on either side as if to widen and clear our way; they 
caressed the canoe with melodious embrace and bent the 
paddles with complying pressure ; they lifted us on buoyant 
arms and bore us on with elastic motion. If they did not 
delight to do us service, we might well have thought so ; nature 
was so gracious and benignant. And the light waved a magic 
wand about us ; it painted the skies, it sported gaily on the 
stream and shores, it glistened on the dark foliage and on the 
bright wings of the dragon and of the multitudinous and 
many-colored butterflies. It excelled itself in brilliant effects 
and in the witchery which it lent to the congenial surroundings. 
The air likewise, pure as the waters, light as ether, perfumed 
with the fragrance of the woods ; no wonder the salmon leaped 
to get it, no wonder we rejoiced to breathe it. And it was our 
own water which floated us ; we coasted our own shores, but we 
were not long in passing beyond them ; on our port side, Hero 
Rapids carried us quickly to the stately mansion of our neigh- 
bor and we soon stepped out upon his wharf, and treading the 
floor of his spacious piazza, entered his capacious halls. His 
ample, well-appointed dining-hall, with its hospitable fireplace, 
smacked of good cheer and of comfort. The dinner was excel- 
lent. A splendid cut of salmon, boiled, with butter sauce; 
lamb, roasted ; cucumbers and vegetable marrow from the 
Staten Island gardens of our host, grown from English seed; 
and many other choice matters beside; sherry and claret and 
champagne ; Scotch whiskey of excellent quality and different 



132 ABRAHAM LANSING 

varieties of cigars of the best brands. A fire was lighted after 
dinner and we sat about the fireplace and talked with the 
ladies, examined rare assortments of trout and salmon flies and 
quaint hooks and passed the evening very jovially. The young 
ladies had made boutonnieres, devices of butterflies painted 
from nature and scarcely distinguishable, which we brought 
away as souvenirs. It was dark when we came away. We 
found our canoemen at the wharf and were soon after back 
at Camp Albany. And so ended our last Sunday in 1883 on 
the Ristigouche. 



1884 

Wednesday, June 11. 
Left Albany at 1 p. m. via Delaware & Hudson Railway 
for Montreal en route for Camp. Day fair and warm. 
Sweny and Sage came with us. Reached Montreal rather 
ahead of than after time— 10.40 p. m. — found Lawrence at 
Windsor; Florence came in at Junction above Waterford, by 
train from New York. 

Thursday, June 12. 
Breakfast about 9. Stores at McGibbon's, crockery at 
Darling's, hardware at Crope's. Lunch at Windsor cafe, 
afterwards at races, where it rained hard; dinner at 7, the 
six of us at a table together. Train for Matapedia at 10 p. m. 
Ticket to Montreal and return $15; ticket to Matapedia and 
return $14.70. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 133 

Jane 13. 
Reached Matapedia at 7 p. m. ; found a number of mem- 
bers at the Club House, among others Dr. and Mrs. Mason, 
Fearing, Robert Goelet, Dexter of Chicago. A few black fish 
taken, but one or two bright ones. Reports from below that 
fish are scarce. Four Indians with two canoes on hand for us, 
with Larry at the head and Steve to arrive to-morrow, mak- 
ing five. D. O. is to have Larry and Barney; L., Peter and 
Noel Vicaire. Steve is to cook as last year. Scow also en- 
gaged and ready for to-morrow by Robinson, the club man- 
ager. 

June 14. 
At Club House and on river. Up before 6 — started at 
8— day bright and cool. Hard, black frost last night. 
Scowman Frederick Wyres. Scow brand new; two good 
horses ; men prompt and willing ; it was well loaded with stuff 
for McAndrew and others besides our own. Sweny came 
with us to Harmony. Sage, Lawrence and Florence walked. 
They came down to us as we rested by the shore. We stopped 
at Nelson's and his wife gave us bread and milk for luncheon, 
which did us good and tasted better than pate de foi gras, 
almost as good as Postmaster Hyde's canvas backs. McAn- 
drew 's fine establishment on the Island below Camp Albany 
we found a desolation ; either the flood or the ice or both had 
set upon it with a will, uprooted it from its moorings and 
grounded it, as one of the scowmen said, into match wood. 
Signs of a new building were apparent, but on a smaller scale ; 



i 3 4 ABRAHAM LANSING 

a small army of workmen were visible on the beach as we 
passed. 

At 8 o'clock Camp Albany came in view, and, of course, 
to see it from below you must be very near. Battlements of 
solid ice guarded its approaches and made a rim grim and 
white against the river's bank 10 and 15 feet high and more 
in places from Toad Brook to Hero Rapids on the Brunswick 
side. The Indians with axes and shovels completed the work 
which Ferguson had begun of digging through the pathway 
to our house. But the old Camp, in which we lived so 
pleasantly last year, extended its hospitable arms to us. The 
fire had been kindled by the detachment of Indians sent before 
from our scow, in the old fireplace; doors and windows had 
been opened and beds of boughs made up in the room where 
we sleep. 



June 17. 
The day opened warm; now at 12 m. Thermometer 86 in 
the shade. Found it hot from 8 to 10 on the stream. 
More happy, we trust, than Robinson Crusoe in the possession 
of his island, and certainly more enterprising; neighbor Mc- 
Andrew is fast renewing the structure which fell foul of the 
spring freshet. The new boards glare out in the hot sun and 
the din, din, din of his workmen's hammers resound through 
the solitudes and wakes the echoes "from early morn to dewy 
eve." The ducks, friends of former years, are with us again, 
and Ferguson has added to his poultry yard a few geese, which 
sociably float about the pools and meander upon the beaches. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 135 

Ducks are said to be fond of small salmon and geese ought to 
like them also. Hot, hot, hot. Thermometer at one p. m. 85 
in the shade and up to 92 afterwards. 

L. fished the lower pools, D. O. the upper this morning. 
No fish or signs of them. In the afternoon our neighbor 
fished his pool before our Camp, as he did last evening, but to 
no purpose. 

June 18. 
Another hot day. Fished the pools early and in the evening 
— no fish. 

June 22. 

Mr. Lewis breakfasted with us; day bright, fair and pleas- 
antly cool. After Lewis left for Wilmot's camp above at 
Indian House, Dr. Mason, Mr. Pollock and another came up 
on a scow and stopped. They were in good spirits and enjoyed 
a half hour at our camp. We opened the locust trees and 
planted them; one at the northeast, one at the northwest and 
one at the southwest corner of the camp. 

Larry and Peter drove stakes about them and watered them 
and we all hope and think they will grow. We were very busy 
preparing dinner when our guest arrived, inspected our 
premises a little, said he thought the locust trees would grow. 
He said also that they would grow from the seed and in his 
experience you gained one or two years in the end by planting 
the seed of that kind of tree; i. c, when a tree is half grown, 
you make a gain in transplanting it, but a young shoot is so 



136 ABRAHAM LANSING 

much retarded by transplanting that the shoots from seed will 
overtake and outstrip it in growth. Just after six we served 
dinner on our front verandah, northeast corner. Peter built 
a couple of cedar smudges and the smoke, fragrant and plea- 
sant, relieved us entirely of flies. We served soup, which D. O. 
made a little hot with cayenne, it was remarked, but very good 
indeed. Every one ate his plate with relish; then boiled sal- 
mon, very nice indeed, McA. said, with drawn butter egg sauce 
and champagne wine and mashed potatoes, bread and butter; 
then a large broiled trout, with cucumber and onion dressing, 
same sauce; olives, cheese, black coffee, and cigars. McA. 
gave us Carolina cigars, which were very good, and which we 
smoked on the piazza until it grew cool, when we sat inside 
before a blazing wood fire, and smoked some of D. O.'s Caro- 
linas until after 10, when we lighted our guest to his canoe, 
and bade him good night, as he moved off down the stream. 
Then we retired and slept such sleep as early rising, pine air 
and spruce boughs bring to good consciences. 



June 24. 
Rain in the early morning; overcast and showering later. 
Went out about 8 a. m. ; dull fishing for L. down in Fergu- 
son's water — not a sign. The Kelly, small and a la mode, 
and many others rode the water to no purpose. Out from 
the shores, the sheep, black and white, huddled together, 
looked on in astonishment; the cattle near by peacefully and 
unconcernedly chewed their cuds ; the birds sang and twittered 
in the woods ; the girls flitted to and fro and peered out from 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 137 

behind the fences and the sheds, or walked the shore in their 
brothers' hats; the showers came and cleared; the logs ran or 
caught in the rocks above; the waters lashed the Chain of 
Rocks and sped smoothly on as they widened out afterward. 
The slides and the burnt patches, the poplars and birches, 
turning over their leaves in the dull light and the hemlocks, 
spruces and pines, standing dense and green in spiral state- 
liness, subdued by the all-pervading hush resting on every- 
thing, looked on in wonder at the patience and persistency of 
those in the single canoe riding at anchor in their presence 
and the zeal with which the fisherman rang the changes on his 
reel. Dr. Mason came down in the afternoon, paddling his 
own canoe (a wooden Gaspe boat), with a white man handling 
the stern. He came ashore, had his camera with him and took 
a picture of the camp on the west side, in which we all, Indians 
and ourselves, and rods and gaffs and as much furniture as we 
could conveniently arrange, were included. 



June 25. 
Larry says the toads are acting very strangely. A day or 
two since you could not step on the shore without treading 
on one ; now they have all gone into the woods ; they do beat 
all the toads one ever saw elsewhere. The red squirrels are 
plenty here this year ; they swim the stream and chatter in the 
boughs. Some of them frequent our premises and lug away 
whatever edibles they find there. They are surly visitors on 
our piazza, but shy as they run on the posts and beams before 
us. They are the quickest and most graceful of all the dwell- 



138 ABRAHAM LANSING 

ers in the forest. We invite them to be tame with bits of 
cracker and sugar, but they seem to grow more timid as they 
become more familiar with our habitation. An Indian appears 
to have an inborn delight in the destruction of all the denizens 
of the woods. Saw the new moon over our right shoulder, a 
large beautiful golden crescent, as we looked from the wharf 
this evening up stream. For the Indians have built two 
wharves, which are a great convenience in landing. The new 
moon brings high tides, they say, and the salmon ride the high 
tide to the fresh waters. We must by all reports have them 
soon. 

Steve has a maiden sister who has 1 1 children. She is 
eligible as the wife of some bachelor Indian at the Mission 
settlement. Polycarp's sister has married a doctor of New 
York. Larry, having buried his wife this spring, says he is 
on the lookout for another. 



June 29. 
Breakfast about 8. At 9 took our fire arms, "Honey 
Cooler" and my shot gun, with D. O.'s barometer and binocular 
telescope ; and Barney and Noel put us on shore at the mouth 
of Chain of Rocks Brook and we ascended by the path to 
Daybreak. Found the oat straw of last year's crop piled up 
around the cow stable, a pair of snow shoes on the logs of the 
building outside, a promising crop of buckwheat growing, 
another of oats, another of potatoes and the beginning of a 
new building further up the hill than the cow shed. A mighty 
fine clearing and an admirable prospect there is from it to- 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 139 

wards the river Ristigouche and beyond it. But it is a mighty 
hot clearing on a day like this ; we made pretty short work of 
the inspection and of the prospect and chose the only sheltered 
spot on it, and a small one at that, for our stay there, — to wit, 
a seat on the oat straw at one of the corners of the cow shed, 
the door of the shed being away from the river, perhaps to 
keep the cows from going to it on a day like this. Then we 
found the path through the woods towards the Toad Brook 
Gulch, progressing by easy stages, resting for a while by the 
way at times and quietly waiting to see if some living and 
breathing creature w r ould not come out from the depths of 
the forest to be slaughtered by our weapons of destruction. 
We did see a single red squirrel, but he was a quick, vigorous 
little chap and remained in sight but a moment and so was 
not a victim. Many a black fly and mosquito and many and 
many a midget lost their lives through us to-day and we were 
in a frame of mind at times to have destroyed the whole 
pestiferous race of them; then we stood at the top of the slide 
below camp and looked down at and over the river at the hills 
which outline the more than serpentine windings of the Risti- 
gouche and saw our camp on its farther bank. Then Honey 
Cooler waked the echoes to long and loud reverberations and 
its bullets planted themselves on the shore below it, or flat- 
tened their noses against its stones. Then at the slide above 
the camp twice he paid his respects to the opposite beach. 
Then we saw the Indians at the camp. Then D. O. waved a 
white handkerchief, meaning to attract attention, but which 
was taken as a signal of distress and brought a canoe to the 
other shore. Then we followed a path which Larry tells us 



140 ABRAHAM LANSING 

leads to the head of Toad Brook and rinding that it wound 
its way too much in a direction from the river, we struck down 
through the woods to make a descent to the Brook ; and, after 
some warm scrambling through the trees and among the 
bushes and the fallen tree tops, reached it, and followed its 
windings to the river, where Noel and the canoe were. Barney- 
had climbed up the ascent to the slide where he had seen 
us; D. O.'s rifle called him back. Noel paddled us down 
to Camp from Toad Brook's mouth and then went back 
for Barney, who descended the slide and all hands were home 
again. 

Reaching Toad Brook, D. O. filled his hat with its clear and 
cool, delicious water and we drank such a draught as only 
thirsty and heated and tired men could relish as we did; no 
morsel of dainty food, no ingenious compound of liquid ever 
tasted sweeter. A solitary dug-out with two men lazily wound 
its way down stream as we stood at the upper slide ; the sound 
of the rifle aroused them and they peered intently at the shore, 
opposite to that from which the sound came; not a man was 
visible there or at Camp; and they drifted perplexedly past, 
settling down to their paddles and the drowsy influences of the 
air and the dreamy state of the river. 

Larry says that the man who rode the horses, which lugged 
the bunch of canoes up stream the other day, coming down 
to-day with his horses, riding one of them, saw at Toms Brook 
on the island there a bull moose. The horses snorted and ran 
and so did the man. The moose moved not and seemed in- 
clined to dispute any interference with his right to occupy that 
island. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 141 

July 1. 

Another hot day. No fish in the morning; each of ns rose 
one several times, but caught none. In the afternoon Mrs. 
Sage and daughter Susie and all the Harmony party, Sage, 
Lawrence, Sweny and Florence, came up and paid us a visit or 
made a call. They were very welcome visitors. They came 
in five canoes. The sun hot, one of the Indians from Har- 
mony, poling, gave out ; they hired a substitute, who came up 
with them. They had "boiled the kettle" at Brandy Brook and 
were not in need of anything to eat. D. O. made some tea, 
of which Mrs. Sage and some others partook and pronounced 
it good. We urged them to stay over night ; we chatted 
pleasantly on our front piazza; the party inspected Camp 
Albany and expressed themselves in terms of commendation 
of the Camp, especially remarking on its neatness and appear- 
ance of good order, which was very gratifying. Towards 
evening, they re-embarked and started down stream. We 
saluted them with "Honey Cooler" and L.'s pistol as they passed 
down Hero Rapids. The party had taken all told 14 fish. 



July 3. 
Larry says horses and cows and the like, when they stray, 
always work up stream. Men, he says, when wandering, go 
down stream. The mountain ash flourishes here ; it seems to 
grow wild; there are several on our bank and premises ad- 
joining Camp. L. saw three salmon, good ones, at the head 
of Chain of Rocks this morning. Captain Sweney seemed much 



142 ABRAHAM LANSING 

improved by his three weeks in Camp. He has purchased 
Nelson's water. 

July 5. 

Many good and wholesome things are to be found on the 
banks of this river and in the woods about us. The Townsends 
years ago reared a fortune on the bark of the sarsaparilla root; 
granting the variety which grows hereabouts to be the true 
diaphoretic root, the T's might have found an Hesperidian 
garden on the Ristigouche and the apples unguarded. The 
sarsaparilla bush grows everywhere here; its roots ramify in 
all directions. 

The apple sauce, one of our best possessions, never dis- 
appoints us. D. O. has a genius for compounding it from way 
back. He never fails ; it is ready always, fresh like the 
Huyler's every morning, nay every hour, and exceeding nice, 
especially when it is half peaches. N. B. Run the apples 
through the colander, but not the peaches. 

Easterly winds, pluvial skies, wet weather and cold, breed- 
ing high water, multiply the salmon and make them easy to 
strike and hard to hold ; when a salmon strikes hard, he hooks 
well ; he is apt to endure longer, but don't you think he is surer 
game? And the same kind of weather brings such stuffs as 
pork and ham and good salt herring to a good market; and 
it brings comfort into camp, brightens the hearth fire and 
prolongs the night consultations. It does not demand that 
you shall hail the sun at his rising from your work on the 
stream, or fish by moonlight. Then whiskey wanes and cham- 
pagne lies still and perique is better than vanity fair. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 143 

The eye of the toad is famous. It is beautiful as the eye of 
the gazelle, particularly if seen at midnight by a gig lamp at 
its nose, and so the bard of Avon, who noticed everything, 
notices the eye of a toad : 

"Sweet are the uses of adversity, 
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head ; 
And this our life exempt from public haunt, 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 

And so one night, as is duly recorded, the toads singing 
merrily everywhere, we went at midnight and found this 
precious jewel (two of them) in the toad's head, the sermons 
and the tongues and the books we are reading and listening to 
continually. Our toads, if ugly, are not of the venomous or 
unsavory sort; lively are they, with agile heels, mighty in 
endurance, wakeful ever and watchful, powerful in vocal 
organ, marvelous in song; gay and sportive fellows, multi- 
tudinous, sociable among themselves, and not altogether 
unfriendly with man, albeit they scuttle away when surprised 
in great trepidation. Did not Cromwell have warts on his 
nose? And what an eye had he, yet not more striking than 
the toad's, and what a genius had he ! Who shall fathom the 
infinitude of the toad's capacities? What a pestilence is he 
to noxious insect life! Why in London the florists buy him at 
four pence each ! Length of days are his also ; gnarled and 
hardy, like the oak tree, mirthful as the cricket, genial and 
friendly in countenance, secluded and retiring in ways, numer- 
ous in offspring, without fear of land or water or fire either. 



144 ABRAHAM LANSING 

as we have demonstrated, happy everywhere, in the darkness 
and in the light, little regarded, much misunderstood, the jolly 
toad of Canada, let us have him in plaster, carve him in 
marble, cast him in bronze, celebrate him in song. There 's 
"good in everything." 

Sunday, July 6. 

Rose early to look at weather indications. Air not cold; 
fog on the hills, whether rising or falling, uncertain; seemed 
to be both. Was it likely to clear or would it rain and raise 
the water? Larry did n't know, I 'm sure. Peter was of the 
same opinion ; on the whole the fair weather prophets had the 
majority and we determined to move; followed up breakfast 
with a burying of bottles, a making of inventories, a packing, 
nailing, tying, labelling, filling of rod cases and trunks and 
carrying to the canoes until we were ready to start. The twain 
Ferguson boys were on hand ; Lewis came in on his way down ; 
a hard shower came up and we had luncheon of crackers and 
cheese and some potted ham, which Lewis brought and a 
plentiful supply of champagne wine, which we drank out of 
our flask cups. The cheese which we had brandied we left in 
our closet, hoping, if it did not take itself off, age would im- 
prove it, and the frost. 

Lewis accompanied us as far as McA.'s, where we stopped 
to call; found the family at dinner— Mr. and Mrs. McA., Mrs. 
McA.'s sister and the several daughters at dinner in their tent 
— all in good spirits. They invited us to join in their meal. 
We were to dine at Harmony, we told them, and thought we 
told them the truth, and declined. It was a fine spread, and 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 145 

very savory — the lamb and the green peas, the cucumbers and 
the lettuce odorous with rich gravies and sauces. We took 
some whiskey (Scotch), looked at the new house, now having 
all its windows well washed by McA.'s own hands and three 
rooms ready for occupancy and occupied. Well done, McA. ! 
We justly praised his zeal. We had a cigar also and then 
departed smoking it. At Ferguson's found Lewis and young 
Peto, who was poling his way up stream and, having lost his 
goods and chattels in the Waddell fire, was picking up what 
articles of comfort and luxury he could find en route. Lewis 
and he were talking together on the beach. We landed, of 
course. Peto had lost five and twenty dollars in silver by the 
fire and seemed pretty well broken up financially. We invited 
Peto to take some few things left in our camp closets, said 
good bye, and the two canoes, that of Lewis and our own. 
started down stream. D. O. and L. rode in one canoe, Larry 
and Barney with them. Peter and Noel paddled Stephen. 
Stopped and saw Madame Mowat in Sunday array, and again 
at Nelson's, where Alice Mowat was with her sister ; we spent 
a little time in conversation there in deference to D. O.'s rela- 
tions to the Mowat family and ours to Nelson. 

A canoe was anchored in front at Harmony and some one 
was angling there for trout. A well-dressed figure against the 
light and the shore, slim, vigorous, jaunty and well-poised, 
gracefully whipping the stream in a comfortable, nonchalant 
way, fair to see and extremely postprandial in suggestion; 
it proved to be Lawrence. We drew up in good order and he 
welcomed us civilly, with one of his admirable smiles, full of 
kindliness, of mischief and of strength, and came ashore. 



146 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Sage, Sweny and another visiting them were at Camp and 
came out. Florence had gone away with Mrs. Sage the day 
before. Our appetites were sauce for hardtack. Our noses 
listened for the first sweet savor from that distinguished 
kitchen. There was many an expression of pleasure at seeing 
us and much incidental commendation of the dinner which 
had been served that day at the camp table. George had 
equipped himself for the occasion, and great as his ordinary 
successes are, had that day, in especial honor of expected 
guests, determined to excel himself, and had succeeded. All 
hands, first or last, bore testimony that Delmonico could not 
have excelled George. There was a profusion of regrets that 
we had not come down to that dinner, in which we might have 
joined more heartily if we could have been persuaded that we 
had not. In fact, the dinner hour, whatever it was, for we 
never knew, had passed, and the dinner too. Six miles of 
water lay between us and Matapedia; day was waning; we 
would have been glad of the crumbs which fell from those rich 
men's table; wine was plentiful, poured out abundantly, cold 
and sparkling. Were we to starve, we who had come to be 
feasted ? Olcott suggested a biscuit, and that brought about a 
cold repast of lamb and bread and butter, etc., which, if it did 
not equal the dinner, served a mighty good purpose. It was the 
first fresh-killed meat eaten by us in three weeks ; and we left 
happy in the fact that we were neither hungry nor thirsty, and 
wiser for the fact that we had missed probably as good a dinner 
as has been served on the river Ristigouche, above the Mata- 
pedia at all events. 

Camp Harmony was very trim and orderly, fine as silk, an 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 147 

example to the whole river. Swept and garnished well, they 
said it was for Sunday and for us. From the beam, which 
reaches from behind the eaves from side to side, swung yellow 
bags of ham and bacon ; lengthwise at the sides near the main 
partition spread the table, long, ample, hospitable, with its 
benches and neat new rubber cloth. Out from the side rooms 
and about the spruce-bough beds peered new crisp tarleton 
and mosquito bars ; on the walls the old familiar pictures which 
His Grace the Duke of Beaufort placed there and others more 
recently. No display of kitchen ware or crockery; a kitchen 
outside (and a stove, alas, a stove) and a servant to look after 
it— an accomplished city-bred and city-trained servant, George 
of Brookline and of Lawrence's household, an African, a 
barber and a cook, a body servant par excellence, a master of 
ceremonies, as reported to us by the whole camp, who ought 
to know, a great man, and a favorite there, and getting as 
much fun out of everything as anyone else. 

"Sweet are the uses of adversity." Experience, an admir- 
able schoolmaster ever, teaches many a lesson in the woods. 
Nothing sets the wits agoing like personal discomfort. Under 
such a spur man's ingenuity is often remarkable. But the wit 
of woman is past all comprehension. "It is all well enough," 
said one, "for the head and the neck and the arms and the 
hands, with the veils and the helmets and the gloves and the 
tar and oil and the carbolics ; but what good are veils and hel- 
mets, and how is one to use oil and tar otherwise? I have 
been taught a lesson that I can't forget, and I have woolen 
stockings which rise, well— above the knee, and garters at the 
top of them, good ones, I assure you. Sir, you should see 



148 ABRAHAM LANSING 

the size of them. I have top boots and a pair of masculine 
trousers and I defy the whole crepitating insective race from 
a punky to a pinching-bug." "Why," said she, "when I came 
untaught to tempt the perils of this wilderness I was confident 
and feared not. I had veils and gauntlets and all that in 
abundance, and what cared I? I put them on, becomingly, I 
hope, but anyway in great profusion ; then I went fishing in 
silk stockings and low shoes. I had a rare experience, I can 
tell you. Every power of endurance I had was strained to the 
utmost. I was as decorous as I could be, but I cut that fishing 
party short at the earliest opportunity; no one could have 
reckoned the number of mosquitoes which assailed me in a 
most clandestine manner; you could scarce have counted the 
marks they made on me from the insteps upwards ; they were 
a sight to see. I wish you could have seen them." The con- 
nection may be remote, but the recital suggests an incident 
of the park. "Go," said a lady to a gentleman, "go imme- 
diately, call some one; a bug has gone down my back." 
"Madam," said he, "had I not better go for the bug?" If the 
bug had not been found, the fact would have been undoubtedly 
related. Of course it is useless to look for mosquito bites sev- 
eral years old. 

Larry smiled from ear to ear as he said good bye to L., and 
seemed ready to launch forth, gray hair and all, into a war 
dance. "What pleases you so, Larry?" said L. "I dunno, 
I 'm sure," said Larry. Barney beamed, but was reticent, 
though cordial in his good bye. That sort of exhilaration, 
thought we, is such as champagne produces; at all events we 
never saw the champagne we brought in the canoes again, or 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 149 

the ale either; and I '11 lay a wager of four half-pints that we 
won't find it there next year. Peter and Noel were in better 
trim, when L. paid them; they were all right and we hope 
remained so. They brought Steve down, and had nothing in 
their canoe of the sort. We brought it in our own canoes, 
with Larry and Barney, that it might be under personal super- 
vision. 



1885 

June 11. 

At Montreal; breakfast about 8.30 o'clock. Titus pere et 
fils made their appearance, also Lewis, our guest for a night 
last summer, and with him Herrick, President of the New 
York Produce Exchange; Jones (the younger) of the "New 
York Times," and a friend, Mr. Wing, came into the Windsor 
restaurant while we were lunching. Two years ago we had 
met Jones and his father ; they were at the Salmon Club when 
we came on that year, memorable for the yield of salmon and 
the large scores made on the Ristigouche. Father and son 
were the only occupants of the club house for a time early in 
that season, and were in luck. We had reason to remember 
the younger Jones and were glad to see his genial face again. 
He not only catches salmon neatly, but he brews a superb 
cocktail. All these gentlemen were bound for salmon rivers ; 
Titus and son for the Great Cascapedia; Lewis and Herrick 
for the Bonaventure, which Lewis has leased ; the rest for the 



150 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Ristigouche. Were busy during the day eking out our stores 
not forwarded by freight in advance and in arranging for our 
sleeping berths. 

The way luxury is creeping up the banks of the Ristigouche 
is appalling. What with our neighbor McAndrew and his 
palatial residence and the Club and Camp Harmony and its 
lessees and Billy Florence and Sweny, it is reaching us here 
at modest, merry Toad Brook with rapid and dismaying 
strides. It looks as if Dean Sage might be left alone to com- 
bat the warfare on discomfort and to sigh for Arcadian sim- 
plicity. Well, Dean sighs and scolds, too, they say, but beneath 
the spacious porch of Harmony the well-filled larder bursts its 
plethoric sides, and salmon fishing is almost an incident to the 
genial hospitality which reigns there the season long, and is 
elaborate enough for dukes and lords. Indeed, the hardships 
which Sage endures for the sake of his principles, if they en- 
title him ever to a martyr's crown, will not be likely to induce 
him to submit his claims in that respect to a jury selected from 
those who whip the Ristigouche. Go it luxury, pell mell, say 
I; let us have comfort. Not mean, miserable, self-seeking, all- 
grasping selfishness, but such comfort as genial hospitable souls 
enjoy and love to share with friends and strangers when they 
go a fishing — comfort just as much as we can get and can 
afford. After all, that is the touchstone by which we must test 
everything, aside from moral tests — dollars and cents. 

Left Montreal at 10.20 p. m. for Point Levi, by train. 
Edward, the porter at the Windsor this year, as heretofore, 
ran us through the Canadian custom house and had our lug- 
gage ready at the train. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 151 

That moderate, frugal repast before a blazing camp fire was 
as comforting to our stomachs, as would have been the viands 
at the Lord Mayor's dinner, or by contrast was an epicurean 
feast to the breakfast at the Victoria Tavern at Point Levi. 
Oh! Dei Gratia Regina, what barbarities are wrought in thy 
name! What reputable mortal, unanointed man or woman, 
either, would tolerate the bestowal of his name or hers on 
such a caravansary as the Victoria Inn at Levi ? 



Saturday, June 13. 

Scow ready, Indians on hand, freight arrived and express 
matter. Not a thing gone wrong, excepting the crank of the 
grindstone which— the crank— had its head broken. Florence 
remarked that we should have no cranks in our party anyway ; 
perhaps we needed none; however, that crank had its head 
broken, but the treadle will answer without. We asked Flor- 
ence to go with us on our scow to his fishing grounds below 
Grog Island, where he is to erect his tent and gather his 
Penates about him alone. 

It is a long journey for a scow from Matapedia to Camp 
Albany against the quick water, over the stony bottom and 
along the hard and often rocky beach. The iron hoofs of 
the horses strike the stones along the resounding shores and 
splash through the water upon the flinty bottom, while the 
patient driver, watching the scow and minding the "team" and 
goading them on, or cheering them and listening for direc- 
tions, seems, next to the horses, to have the hardest labor. The 



152 ABRAHAM LANSING 

task of the rudder-man is not an easy one either; the heavy 
rudder plies to and fro continually, as the craft ferries from 
side to side, or bends around the quick curves in the shores. 
The rudder-man (helmsman) became driver as we neared the 
end of the journey and the driver became passenger, save that 
he lent a hand now and then at poling. Put on a third horse 
on the way up, which facilitated matters and expedited the 
journey. Miles, who lives down stream — one of the brothers 
— asked to have a few bags put aboard and carried up to his 
brother at Brandy Brook, which, of course, was assented to, 
and so Miles came along on the scow with the men and did 
some of the work. Miles had been at Campbleton, where he 
saw, so he said, 150 salmon in Porter Mowat's ice-house— the 
result of one day's work by the netters there. No salmon 
there, said Miles, was under 26 pounds ; most of them over 30 
pounds and several of them weighed 40 pounds. We left 
Florence at his camping ground about 10.30 a.m.; he has 
leased a stretch of river there from Moor and others. We 
went ashore ; the men "boiled the kettle" ; Florence refreshed us 
with some biscuit and claret and we left (at 12.20 p. m.) him 
there with his Indians spreading his tents and stowing away 
his stores. Camp Harmony will scarcely leave him to entire 
solitude, and if comforts and conveniences, comestibles et id 
genus omne, can make man happy, he is not likely to suffer. 
Stopped at Nelson's and took on potatoes, 20 bushels in bags, 
also a box of eggs, some bread and a crock of butter. Friend 
Miles disembarked near Brandy Brook and took his bags with 
him, or left them on the shore below or on the scow to be 
delivered on its downward voyage. At all events, Miles pushed 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 153 

off in his dugout into the stream below the brook and we went 
on our way without him. At Ferguson's we tarried again; a 
procession of Fergusons, young and old, went to and from 
the house and scow in a pelting rain with our boxes and our 
barrels, our pots and kettles, our bath tub and our various 
household effects. When the three horses came aboard, the 
jaded animals tramped through the water beneath their feet 
and the rain above their heads, through the Chain of Rocks 
along the Hero Rapids, and drew the scow to our beach at 
about 8.40 o'clock. The rain had ceased to fall and we made 
our way to the Camp, and wasted no time in getting things 
settled. So Moor was paid, his brother and men had a drink 
of whiskey; the horses were stabled under the canopy of 
heaven and we went to bed on the bough beds Ferguson had 
made and slept our first night this year at Toad Brook, — slept 
like the seven sleepers, while the rain poured without and far 
into the Sunday morning. 

We have five Indians : Imprimus : — Stephen De Dam. Steve 
is Major Domo, Cook and Lord of the Bed Chamber, Airer of 
the Blanketing, Master Stoker, Chamberlain of the Smudge 
Pots, Ruler of the Ice House, Head Carpenter, Earliest Bird 
of the Morning, Last Messenger of the Night, Waiter in 
Chief, Arbiter of the Indian Council, and Monarch of all he 
surveys when our canoes are out on the stream, and he is also 
Keeper of the Keys of all excepting the wine room and the 
main lockers. Second: — Peter Soque Caple. Peter is the 
Admiral of the Fleet, Chief Philosopher, Major Metaphysi- 
cian, Expounder of the Weather Signals, Pilot in A. L.'s 
canoe, Overshadowed Overseer of the camp forces, also Chap- 



154 ABRAHAM LANSING 

lain of the Indian Camp. Third: — Barney Barnaby. Barney 
is Head Granger, Ruler of Weights and Measures, Prime 
Estimator of Avoirdupois, Chief Explorer and Sachem of the 
Camp Equipage, Emissary in Chief, Ambassador, Secretary of 
Legation, also Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, 
Pilot and Grand Gaffist in D. O.'s canoe, Chief Whittler and 
Axeman and Boss Tier of Twine. Fourth: — Noel Vicaire. 
Noel is Prince of the Anchor Ropes, Caster and Stayer of the 
Sheet Anchor, Strategist and advance picket in Warfare with 
the Log navy, also Sovereign and sole Gaffer — his domain is 
limited to L.'s canoe. Fifth : — Louis Michir. Louis is a puzzle 
unsolved ; whatever language he speaks, he uses but little of it. 
He can smile peacefully — has a set of handsome white teeth 
and hair as black as night and stiff as wire — he wears a shirt 
as red as carnage — he is also a pilot of bow oar — head centre 
of ropes — Caster of the Sheet Anchor, Advance Guard in the 
onset of logs in D. O.'s canoe. With this complement of men, 
our domestic interests are served and our canoes manned. 

Larry is dead, and with him dies much special and valuable 
knowledge of these woods and the Ristigouche. A connect- 
ing link between the present and the past is now gone. Larry 
seems to have died a victim to his taste for fire-water. His 
last days, according to Barney's account, were cheerless 
enough. His continued inebriety led to neglect of all the little 
precautions, which an Indian naturally takes, and he died 
from cold, produced by exposure. Barney says his friends 
were alienated from him by his conduct. Larry had lost his 
wife just before he came up here with us last year; no doubt 
her care and restraint would have exerted a better influence 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 155 

upon him. Larry had no children, but he had adopted, he 
and his wife, a little girl who became the wife of our man 
Steve. So Larry took Steve to live with him last winter, but 
in his prolonged orgies drove him out into the winter's cold, 
creating, it would seem, much feeling at the Mission. Barney 
tells us that scarce any went to the funeral. 



June 14. 

Order was to be made out of the chaos upon which the 
Sunday dawned at Camp Albany. The day was bright and 
warm and we fell to work until the whole artillery of the camp 
had been unlimbered and all its ammunition stored away, so 
that we were in fair plight for the season's campaign. The 
grass had grown nicely over the whole clearing; the foliage 
in the woods is unusually fresh and green this year; the river 
full and lively, clear but not quite settled from the rain. Camp 
Albany had survived the winter without a scratch. They say, 
Ferguson and his bovs, that it was bedded in snow to its 
eaves. Its roof must have looked like the summit of Old 
Squaw's Cap down the river when in the dead of the Canadian 
winter she rears her snow-clad peak high heavenward. 

Barney was eight years a sailor in the merchant service. 
He had one voyage in a Norwegian vessel, but abandoned 
that particular service because he did not speak that language 
very snug, and because he did not understand it at all. When 
the order came, "Batten down the hatches, throw overboard 
the diamonds," in good Norwegian, Barney, with ready in- 
stinct and quick intelligence, looked over the situation, knew 



156 ABRAHAM LANSING 

what ought to be done, guessed at the meaning of the tongue 
unknown to him and went and obeyed and did his work well ; 
but Barney became tired of living solitary among his fellows 
and preferred to serve in ships where he could enjoy the yarns 
spun in the forecastle. When tents are to be reared, trees to 
be felled, knots to be tied, bough beds to be made, special 
duties to be done, Barney is real captain of the host, the most 
willing and ambitious Indian we have had in Camp. Barney 
likes a swig of whiskey, but has never indulged to excess in 
Camp and never gets a chance. 

Monday, June 15. 
The wind blew and the shutters swung in the night, but 
we heard little of it until there came a loud crash near morn- 
ing. D. O.'s washbowl bit the dust on the back porch and 
went to smithereens. The shutters were nailed fast to-day; 
verbum sapientibus. This is really the first mishap in our 
camp; nothing larger than a tumbler has before this come to 
grief. Of all the camp crockery carried to Ferguson's and 
back, year after year, but a small saucer has been broken. 



Thursday, June 18. 
Called on McAndrew and family, found them at dinner; 
the young ladies placed chairs for us and we sat at table until 
the meal ended ; afterwards smoked a cigar on the porch and 
came away. Conversation turned on fishing. McA. has his 
brother with him this year, a salmon fisher in foreign waters. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 157 

or waters over the sea. This brother of McA.'s not only 
makes his own flies, but his rods and reels, possibly his lines. 
He fishes with great zeal and persistency, more so, if possible, 
than his brother, our neighbor. 

Speaking of the netting of the mouth of the rivers and the 
purchase of the rights of the netters, the fishing rights are 
appurtenant to the soil on the banks. McA. seemed to think 
the purchase impracticable as being altogether too costly a 
method, even if practicable. He says, however, that purchase 
of netting rights on only one side will answer every purpose, 
and for this reason, that when salmon find an obstruction to 
their passage up on one side, they will tend like a flock of 
sheep to the opposite side, following each other after once the 
current of salmon sets that way. The senior McA. seemed 
to think that the purchase of the rights on one side the river, 
or on both sides, would be of little avail without some restraint 
upon netting farther out on the coast at the river's mouth, 
or about it. But we know that large numbers are yearly 
taken in the tide way nets, notwithstanding the nets at the 
mouth; and assuming the latter not to increase in numbers, 
the removal of the nets which are farther up must save to the 
pools all that would be caught in them — very large numbers 
according to accounts. 

Mr. McAndrew has three daughters, Belle, Marion and 
Mabel. The sister of Mrs. McA. and Mr. McAndrew's 
brother are also with him this year. The family are now in 
deep mourning for Mrs. McAndrew, who died recently. D. O. 
and L. remember her with great kindness. She was most civil 
and obliging as a neighbor and we regret her loss most sin- 



158 ABRAHAM LANSING 

cerely. The young ladies are getting a thorough education in 
wood craft; they pole and paddle their canoes and try a hand 
at logging; they have graduated in trouting and will be soon 
taking salmon. They take pictures in photography also and 
last winter presented us with a good picture of our camp and 
another of our Indian shanty. 

Friday, June 19. 
D. O. went down to fish the Ferguson Pool; caught a 
salmon weighing 18 pounds. Another rose to his fly there. 
In the afternoon struck a very large fish in Camp Pool. It 
was just at the Silver Doctor's hour; it looked to him from 
the size of the fish that he would take a very late dinner that 
evening, but the fish only played with the fly and dropped it. 
He was just pricked. L. rose and held a good fish in lower O. 
pool, but for a short time. The reel started, but the fish 
dropped off while the anchor was coming up. Heavy thunder 
shower about a quarter to six p. m. Barometer 29^0, so a 
passing storm, but a good one while it lasted. The rain came 
two ways on our front ; the heavy drops converging from the 
easterly and westerly and forming the apex of a triangle in 
front of us. They pelted the stream well and the artillery of 
the skies reverberated through the hills and the lightning lit up 
the stream. The shower was over before 6 p. m. 

June 20. 
D. O. fished the O. pools; took two fish weighing 21 pounds 
and 2.^/2 pounds. A. L. fished Ferguson's pool and lost a 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 159 

fish. We pay Ferguson for the privilege of fishing his water 
this season $30. Down at the head of the Chain of Rocks are 
"The Whales," a school of them, for all the world like the 
Leviathan of the deep. They rear their rocky backs and sides 
above the swift water and help the ridge of rocks at the head 
of the rapids to dam the current into a broad expanse of 
comparatively still water, which reaches back to meet and 
receive the torrent which pours down Hero Rapids. The 
whales rise some 10 feet or so above the stream at mean water. 
Peter says that this spring the rafts and scows went over the 
tops of the whales, clearing them without a scratch. Peter 
has a wife and seven children, but he has been twice married 
and has grown children by his wife of a former marriage, 
who are not reckoned. This is better for the government than 
most Indians, but Peter is a patriot, as well as philosopher and 
husband. Noel has a wife and four children, all small, seven 
years old he supposes. 



June 21. 
Our second Sunday in camp. We were up reasonably early 
for Sunday morning and in view of the hour at which we 
retired last night. We shaved and made a Sunday toilet. We 
had five salmon in our ice house and determined to send them 
out; so the Ferguson boys were deputed to take them to 
Matapedia. The salmon went to Miss Olcott, Mrs. Lansing, 
R. W. P., J. G. F., Mrs. J. V. L. Pruyn. Dr. Campbell, Mr. 
Ives and Mr. Stearns, all of Montreal, who have a lease of the 



160 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Quebec side at Chamberlain Shoals and above, came down to 
call and stayed until about three o'clock in the afternoon. 

The lands on the Brunswick opposite them, as above us, are 
leased by S. Waddell of pleasant memory. S. Waddell's stake 
is now removed from our premises, but S. Waddell is still 
apparently impressed with the idea that he had leased the waters 
which we fish and own above our camp — the Olcott pools. 
He sent a messenger down stream to spy out the land last 
week and he informed L., when fishing above, that Mr. Wad- 
dell's line bounding his leased lands was opposite Toad Brook 
and extended on the Brunswick side from a point opposite 
Toad Brook to Toms Brook. The mistake of S. Waddell 
seems to be in assuming that, because the Brunswick govern- 
ment lease all their fishing rights between those two points, 
the lease covers rights of fishing which do not belong to the 
government. The party of Montreal gentlemen, while they 
anticipated some trouble with S. Waddell, were consoling 
themselves with the knowledge that his partner in the lease, 
or co-lessee, is a gentleman and a Christian. 



June 22. 
Dr. Mason and Mr. Higginson called on their way to the 
club grounds at Indian House. The Club are putting up a 
house at Red Pine Mountain ; other members of the Club had 
preceded Dr. Mason. Day cool. Thermometer at 10 a. m. 
58. Were out before 6. D. O. hooked a fish in O. pools 
which came off at the gaff. Logs running fast and strong. 
L. saw a good fish in Ferguson's pool, but did not get him up. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 161 

Sage has leased a part of his fishing this year to a party of 
New York gentlemen. Mr. Dumont seems to be the lessee. 
They have a camp opposite Mowat's, which is supposed to 
take the chromo from every camp on the river. Mason says 
the party calls its camp "Camp Reckless." Their note paper 
has that heading; by that sign they mean to conquer. Their 
device is a man in a red shirt, killing salmon. ' Their camp is 
the sensation of the season down stream. 

The logging season being hard upon us, we were out pretty 
early this morning. The drive is believed to be a day's jour- 
ney above us, reckoning a day from 4^2 a. m. to 8 p. m. 
Soon after 7 the logs gathered thick and fast about us 
and at 7^ were running snug, as Larry would say, and we 
were driven off the water. 

We shot at a mark with "Honey Cooler," and afterwards the 
culinary head of the drive paid us a visit and announced the 
approach of its rear guard. He had a drink of whiskey and 
water, and saying that the drivers were "hard by," we put on 
our waterproofs and sallied out in the rain to see them get 
the logs off the rocks below Toad Brook, where they had 
lodged in great numbers. Then it cleared and we sat on the 
beach, awaiting. McAndrew and his entire family came up in 
their canoes and waited with us; but a shower threatening, 
they fled for home. D. O. and L. tarried awhile, when the 
rain again began to fall and the men ceased work without dis- 
entangling the mass upon the Toad Brook rocks — driven off 
by the pelting rain which came with thunder and lightning. 
Last year the drivers came down with noise and shouts enough 
to frighten the fish in the stream. They were down river men 



162 ABRAHAM LANSING 

nearing home after the long winter. To-day they came with- 
out a sound excepting that of handling the logs with their 
iron spikes and pries and the splashing of horses and their own 
feet. These drivers are up river men and are going away 
from home. The men in the cook's scow built a rude shanty 
on our beach above us and in that the drivers slept in their 
wet clothing, with feet to the fire at the open front of the 
shanty. 



Wednesday, June 24. 
At about 6 this morning the drivers had disentangled the 
mass of logs on the rocks in midstream above us and river 
was clear from Camp up, when A. L. went out soon after 6 to 
fish O. pools. Took a fish in upper pool weighing 21^ 
pounds. Wind high and cold. Thermometer 56 degrees. Had 
fire. L. took two fish in the afternoon weighing 10 pounds 
and 18 pounds. D. O. took a fish in front of Camp, in the 
afternoon, weighing 23 pounds. McAndrew sent up a leg 
and loin of mutton, with his compliments. 



June 25. 
Rained during the night, but river fallen notwithstanding; 
sun out in the morning, but clouds lowering. Midday hot. 
Thermometer 84, bright and clear. L. fished two pools before 
Camp in morning without a sign. In the evening about 6 
went down to Ferguson's pool, where the fish were jumping; 
struck a small fish which played well and jumped a number of 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 163 

times, but pulled out. Another larger fish started the reel, 
but was off before the anchor came in. After dusk struck a 
fine fish which made magnificent play; four times he showed 
his body above the water; he towed nicely in to shore and 
seemed well fagged ; came ashore with him and three times 
quartered him in for gaffing; the second time after a furious 
shoot down stream with L. chasing along side of him ; then 
another pull to the shore within gaffing reach; then another 
spurt into the stream; then up to the gaff again, where he 
went away, leaving a very disgusted man to reel in the line 
and go home, just as McAndrew's boat came up. The ancient 
Moses was discovered in a growth of bulrushes. The modern 
idea of Moses puts the rushes on his face. But it is not 
recorded anywhere that Moses was a fisherman. 



June 26. 
Dr. Mason passed down, also Higginson; they had taken 
nine fish. Dr. Cameron also came down going out; had taken 
a fish on his way, Peter said probably at the mouth of Jour- 
dan's Portage Brook. Cameron said the fish would not come 
up to a fly; the water, he said, was too full of froth after the 
shower. But the fish seem to be at the mouth of the brooks 
and on the bay. The storm had passed about 6. D. O. went 
down to Ferguson's. L. went up to O. pools. A fish jumped 
between the slides, L. dropped down to him; he was well in 
at our shore ; tried him with a Mallard wing, a Curtis, a Blue 
Doctor, a Jock Scott, a Fiery Brown and "The last chance" 



1 64 ABRAHAM LANSING 

and a Silver Doctor to no purpose. Dropped down to the bar 
and fished with a Silver Doctor, it being dusk. Struck a fish 
which jumped and gave good play, but pulled out. Went back 
to the bar and when quite dark struck a fish; had formed a 
plan and announced it to the Indians to tire the fish out and 
then tow him down past the camp and call D. O. with a lan- 
tern. D. O. had not yet come in ; we carried out the plan, and 
calling out, Steve came out with a lantern and at 8.25 gaffed 
him by the light; he weighed 21 pounds, and gave fine sport. 



June 27. 
Went out this morning after 7. Day bright and clear 
and warm. L. fished camp pools, L.'s pool and shoal water 
above Hero Rapids. After 10 a. m. struck a fish near the 
head of Hero Rapids and gaffed him below McAndrew's, on 
his beach. He weighed 21^ pounds. D. O. fished O. pools 
and took two fish just at the head of the bar; they weighed 
22^4 and 23 pounds. When L. came into camp he shouldered 
his shot gun "Blunderbuss" and went up stream to see D. O. 
fish, calculating on a ride back in O.'s canoe ; around the point 
found Waddell's guardian and while talking with him. O. 
fishing in sight just above, O. struck a fish which seemed to 
have his mind set upon the tide ways. L. followed O.'s canoe 
down to Camp, where he found Sage and Sweny, who had 
come up from Harmony to make a call ; they were at the Camp 
and came down, the Harmony Indians, "Jock" and the rest, 
sitting on the beach. O. passed down with his fish clearing 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 165 

Xelson's scow then going up stream. Sage followed down 
stream a ways, but the fish was bent on going over the rapids, 
and we all gave up the chase and went back to Camp, waiting 
for D. O.'s arrival. O. landed his fish and gaffed him below 
McAndrew's; then McA. stopped him to read a letter to him 
from Robinson, expounding the law as to netting, and dis- 
cussed the Le Ferge matter, and so O. was a long time getting 
back. When he came in, Steve having meanwhile set about 
cooking, the table was spread and we had a warm luncheon. 
We smoked on the porch between 4 and 5 p. m. Sage 
and Sweny floated down stream. Then we went out on the 
river. Soon after 6 there came up, or rather down, through 
Toad Brook Gulch, a cloud as black as night, threatening wind 
and rain in large measure. L. took refuge when the storm 
came, as it did with blackness and thunder and lightning, in 
Ferguson's shed and after the storm went out and fished until 
dark. 

As we were sitting down to breakfast after 10, Mr. Phair. 
the Fish Commissioner of New Brunswick, came and sat 
down with us. We had a chat with him afterwards on the 
porch. He gave us a copy of the Dominion fishery laws. He 
spoke of his proceedings in establishing the riparian rights 
of the New Brunswick owners. He looked at photographs. 
We gave him our cards ; he promised to send a copy of his 
official report to us and left just before a thunder shower. 
Phair said that salmon caught now and smoked were far 
preferable to those purchased in the market. The fish now 
are fat and in good condition— much better than those taken 
later, after the market for fresh salmon is about over, which 



1 66 ABRAHAM LANSING 

are generally smoked for market. Then fish smoked in the 
method used on the stream are far better also. That method 
is this : Build a smokehouse where the wind will reach it ; dig 
a trench leading to the house and cover it; build the fire in 
the further end of the trench and allow the smoke to suck 
through the trench into the smokehouse. No fire is then in 
the house and the fish get no fire, but all smoke. The salmon 
need not be salted for so long a time by this process. When 
this is well and properly attended to, smoking and all, the 
salmon will be excellent — no other smoked fish better, if as 
good. 

A heavy thunder shower set in to stay soon after Phair left 
and then the rain came down fast and hard. Mr. Bartlett and 
Mr. Smith, of Boston, came down stream on their way to the 
Club; had some crackers and cheese and a glass of Dow's ale. 
Spent about an hour with us and went on their way. The 
rain had ceased for a time when they went, but soon set in 
again with vigor; the rain fell hard, with sharp lightning and 
loud thunder, all the afternoon. The water rose in the river; 
the thunder and lightning abated, but the storm lasted until 
we had dined, smoked, philosophized, discussed fishing rights 
and put ourselves up for the night. 

This log will be memorable not for what it says, but for 
what it fails to say. Events transpire, and little incidents and 
experiences, new and interesting, happen to us, which find no 
mention. Other employments supervene at the time and when 
opportunity offers, fatigue or disinclination, maybe laziness, 
triumphs, or memory does n't serve, and so they survive to 
recollection pleasantly, but without date or definite habitation. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 167 

"So with thoughts my brain is peopled, 
And they sing there all day long, 
But they never fold their pinions 
In the little cage of song." 

If you wish to hear the birds sing, go out at the daybreak. 
That means, in this region at this season, at half after two in 
the morning. 

A. L. popped beneath his mosquito bar into bed last night 
about i l / 2 o'clock a. m. D. O. was all ready, and promised 
to put out the lantern and follow suit; the lamp had burned 
out. But the spirit moved him otherwise. He lit a pipe and 
went and sat on the porch. Stillness — but the rush of the 
waters, and the voices of the toads, to whom all times are con- 
venient — and night rested upon the woods and stream, fog 
also lowering half way down the hillsides. Then his pipe 
smoked out, the spirit did not move him couchward ; he lighted 
a cigar and, while he peered into the weird and mysterious 
quiet, a pencil of light glimmered in the east. The note of the 
robin, last sentinel of the day and herald of the dawn, first 
faint and uncertain, then bold and heroic, invaded the silence. 
"That bird," said he, "has made a mistake." The watch said 
it was half-past two, but the chariot steeds of the sun had 
been harnessed and day was reasserting its sway ; scarce later 
than the first faint glimmer of the dawn, the forest became 
vocal with song. We sallied out together to listen and see. 
The advancing light painted an obscure and fanciful picture 
through the fog on the spiral tops of the cedars and the white 
trunks and phantom boughs of the poplars and birches— a 
phantasmagoria. The air resounded with melody, every song 



1 68 ABRAHAM LANSING 

bird was jubilant, and they vied with each other and re- 
sponded to one another in exulting chorus. Along down the 
aisles penetrated the morning trill of the solitary thrush and 
up from the depths came the answering response, far away 
and near by; they called and replied; the redbreast whistled 
and shouted, the warbler wound himself up in his loudest and 
most spiral perplexities, shooting like a butterfly on a flower 
from a substratum of wild and delicious melody towards dizzy 
and unattainable intricacies of song. The toads do not come 
in here fairly; nevertheless they, always on duty, never unde- 
monstrative, maintained a plebeian and persistent gurgle along 
the beach. So ended a rainy Sunday, which, with all its rain 
and thunder, we should mark with a white stone, and which 
will often come back to recollection to solace some quiet hour 
in the city and to serve as the subject of some post-prandial 
talk at home. 



Monday, June 29. 
It has rained nearly all the night and appropriately to wash 
day the rain continues to fall and the roof to shed its water 
plentifully this morning. The river has risen two feet. It 
is now 9.45 a. m. We have not been out on the stream. Mc- 
Andrew, Senior, passed up some half an hour ago. Ther- 
mometer 65%; Barometer 29^0- Two scows have just gone 
past with a party and their luggage bound to the Kedgwick, 
Moor's scow. D. O. says he means to have an India rubber 
bag another season. D. O. fished the camp pools. He took 
a fish which weighed 28 pounds. He hooked another good 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 169 

fish, but lost him ; at the gaff the hook dropped. L. had one 
rise, but got no fish. After luncheon, fished the same pools 
respectively. D. O. brought in a fish which weighed 7*>4 
pounds. L. saw nothing. Rain continued, river rising very 
much, a heavy freshet. Muddy, and filled with floating tree 
tops, logs and sticks. Never saw the water so high or the 
stream so muddy. 

Peter and Noel saw a fish close at shore. L. fished very 
near the shore. Peter said the fish cannot stand the heavy 
current and must settle near shore. L. thought the salmon 
could not see the fly in the dirty water. He tried the current, 
but the anchor dragged. Rafts and scows came down; one 
(a raft) passed D. O. as he was fishing above Hero Rapids. 
The solitary individual who was bringing it down betook him- 
self to shore before it reached the rapids, where it went to 
pieces. The mouths of the brooks have receded into the 
woods. Thermometer 61. The water reaches the vegetation 
on the shores and the beach is wholly obliterated. 

The man who gets all the fish of one day is unconsciously 
given to song singing and to whistling. The other fellow 
sings also, of course, but generally psalm tunes. So boys 
whistle to keep up courage. Here the recorder fell asleep in 
his chair; he went about his preparations in a somniloquistic 
way and betook himself to bed. 



June 30. 

The smoke house was completed and tested yesterday. It 
worked well. The fish had been salted, and this morning were 



170 ABRAHAM LANSING 

washed and peppered and sugared with brown sugar ; fire was 
kindled, and four nice salmon neatly tied on spruce bark were 
hung in the smoke which came into the smoke house from the 
oven and its subterranean chimney and left with closed doors 
to the operation of its blue and penetrating vapor. Peter has 
been master builder of the smoke house. If the salmon is as 
good as the house he has built is neat and fragrant, we shall 
have a treat. The epicurean judgment on the stream is that 
smoked salmon, a la mode, is better than fresh. As for sal- 
mon, Smith, who called on us on Sunday (from Boston), a 
man seemingly of good discerning in such matters, said that 
he had made a thorough test by having served to him at one 
time in different dishes the fish caught presently, caught the 
day before, caught two days and three days before, cooked all 
in the same way, and at the same time, and that in his judg- 
ment salmon was not in perfection for eating until several 
days after being caught. We agree with his opinion. 

Yesterday when D. O. came in with his 28-pound salmon, 
he sent down a messenger, Steve, to Ferguson to get his boy 
to carry it to Matapedia and have it packed and shipped there 
to C. H. R. There were four other good salmon in the ice 
house and the Ferguson boys went down with the lot. They 
went to Charles H. Raymond, The Fort Orange Club, 
Albany, Judge Parker, George G. Davidson, Robert C. Pruyn. 
L. went out with D. O. in his canoe to try the lower end of 
the camp pool in the afternoon. No results; water rushing; 
stream rising; yellow and opaque as sand. The men got their 
canoes high up on the bank to avoid the threatening waters. 
We dined and smoked and went to bed, the rain still falling. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 171 

It appeases a bruise ; it heals a wound ; it cures a cut ; almost 
it reduces a fracture, Pond's Extract does; and absorbs the 
teasing poison of a midget's bill. Olcott has almost the entire 
light artillery of the pharmacopoeia along, but of all that is 
expressed, concocted or compounded from simple plant or 
mineral, Pond's Extract is panacea par excellence. Let the 
children cry for it, then, but not long ; let Pond have a monu- 
ment and a merciful Heaven grant that Olcott's cruise of 
that oil may never be dry; at least while there are insects to 
sting us in the woods, knives to cut, trees to fall or stones to 
trip us up. 

What is that mysterious influence and association of the 
witch hazel? Is there sorcery in it? Do its exhalations re- 
pulse to conceal its magic ? Does it deal by incantation ? Oh, 
plant perennial, restoring and invigorating nature's laws, blos- 
soming when the harvest is garnered and when the leaves are 
falling; repelling by thy malodorous exhalations and healing 
with thy balm, tell us thy subtile virtues that we may find in 
them the fountain of perpetual youth ! Lay thy Samson head 
in our yearning lap that we may live forever in such delights 
as these! 

Nay, Balsamodendron Gileadense, thou art not an emissary 
of darkness, but of light; whether thy power resteth in thy 
root, thy stock, thy twigs or thy leaves, thou art the "brazen 
dish" of medicine dispensed by the bountiful Giver of all good 
things, to raise thy virile wand as a brazen serpent to bless 
afflicted man. As thy soothsaying branch discloses the hidden 
wells of cooling water, so do thy healing juices neutralize the 
venom of the insect. 



172 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Oh, Maecenas Pond, thou truest yEsculapius! If thou livest 
yet serus in coelum redeas! If Heaven has called thee to 
minister above, high be thy monument here, clustered with ivy 
green and crowned with its wreath ! Cedars of Lebanon 
guard thy shrine! 



July i. 

The day opened with continued rain, which fell in long and 
drenching showers through the night. Not very cold, but 
the rain comes on the wings of southeasterly wind. The 
Ferguson boys came up, having returned from Matapedia. 
Florence sends word that he will not be able to come up ; he is 
going out on Sunday. 

Ives came down on his way out, leaving Stearns alone; 
Ives stopped and had luncheon. He confirms the statement 
of the mishap to the Waddell party. They went out to see 
Waddell and found his flag (an American one) at half mast. 
Nelson's bowman was a lame man — not an Indian; he tied 
his anchor rope to the second brace of the canoe; the canoe 
swerved round broadside to the current and at once capsized. 
It turned bottom upwards. The sternman swam ashore; 
Sutherland did so but had great difficulty in getting a hold 
on the bank; he sank four times, but with greatest efforts 
succeeded in rescuing himself. The lost man clung awhile to 
the inverted canoe and then sank and disappeared. Ives com- 
mented severely on the conduct of the surviving canoeman, 
who seemed to have had no thought but for himself. Even 
after his safety was secured, he made no effort to render 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 173 

assistance, but when all was over wept bitterly the death of 
poor "Paddy." 

The wet season has brought forward or we have more time 
to notice particularly great varieties of wild flowers in per- 
fection. I wish I knew their names. There is a hardy twig 
which runs its trailing length close to the beach and bears a 
bright white flower, fragrant with suggestion of the syringa, 
and of new-mown hay, which McAndrew said must be the 
wild plum, but which seems more like the blossoms of the 
cherry trees. D. O. gathered some of it and gave it to the 
young ladies while we were waiting the other day for the log 
drivers. The mountain ash is in full and abundant flower. 
There is a white flower everywhere, having a dark center with 
leaves surrounding each flower. L. calls it a star flower. The 
moccasin plant blooms on the bank. There is a flower we call 
the wild mignonette; the wild lily of the valley; the small 
marguerite ; the buttercup ; the strawberry and raspberry blos- 
soms. The roses have not yet flowered, but they are getting 
ready, multitudes of them. There is the plant blooming with 
a nest of white blossoms— a bush which Barney says is the 
Indian tobacco. There is a beautiful flower which we call the 
wildwood primrose. All these are white or a faint pink ; then 
there are pink flowers and deeper red. There are mosses and 
ferns, exquisite, more so than the shells of the sea, and twigs 
of rich color. Daily something new blooms out. The woods 
are carpeted with flowers. 

Oh, sheltering arms, well has Barney named thee "The 
Sanctuary!" The river flows for thee, no bell need summon 
us to thy sequestered seat. Barney builded "better than he 



174 ABRAHAM LANSING 

knew." The gentle savage appears to have no eye for what 
is delicate and pleasing in nature. 

"The primrose on the river's brim 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more." 

But a knife, a spear, a flambeau, a red turban, a string of 
wolves' teeth are his delight. 



Thursday, July 2. 

Rain during the night. The morning lowered, but the sun 
is struggling through the clouds. Now and then it gleams 
out on the full white clusters of the mountain ash and gives 
promise of a longer visit. Now and then an insect wings the 
air and the birds begin to pipe up faintly. So, too, the toads 
who have for once been silenced. The Phoebe bird is the first 
to-day to summon the chorus. The river has not fallen, but is 
evidently clearing, 9.30 o'clock. 

John and James, the Ferguson boys, brought back with 
them from Matapedia each a new black felt hat. They made 
their appearance with them on their heads day before yester- 
day and yesterday in the drenching rain. Their new hats 
and handsome new boat have infused new life into them. 
There they stood yesterday, wet through to the skin, the rain 
pouring down from their drooping new hats, with a new light 
in their abashed, almost sinister eyes, and proud as a naked 
Sandwich Islander on a hot day with a sealskin chapeau. 
Madame Ferguson sent us as a gift this year a piece of maple 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 175 

sugar, irregular in shape and something like a pound in 
weight. It may be found on top of the lockers in a retiring 
attitude. Flies have not been troublesome this season, but 
with a renewal of the sunlight we may yet know the priceless 
value of the sweet savored smudge pots. 

The apple sauce is excellent this year, what there has been 
of it. For some time there has been an apple sauce famine. It 
was refreshing to observe our alchemist handling his crucibles 
once more and appetizing to see our old friend and hitherto 
unfailing on the table again. It is good for breakfast and 
that is a crucial test of its quality. If you want to know a salt 
cellar, look at the bottom of the salt cellar. That will tell the 
story, if it is a toad cellar. D. O. says so. Thomas and Betty, 
our cellars from the Trois Pistoles, live comfortably on the 
locker shelf and do good service at breakfast, luncheon and 
dinner. They are Olcott's thoughtful altruism. 

The belt of onion gleams over the hill opposite; the toads 
are silenced ; not a sound in the air but the rush of the swollen 
river. Went out to fish this afternoon, L. to the tail of the 
Princess pool and to Ferguson's; D. O. above. Water dark 
and yellow; not a sign. Heavy fog leaving from down the 
stream now. 

McAndrew calls his pool opposite the "Princess Pool." We, 
of course, submit to have what we named the camp pool 
known as the tail of the Princess Pool. The Chain of Rocks 
is almost obliterated by the flood. "The Whales" are almost 
covered; Chain of Rocks Brook pours into the stream like 
a small river. We saw a bottle floating down the river ; it was 
too far in the swift water to chase, so away it went down 



176 ABRAHAM LANSING 

stream, past Ferguson's. Maybe some one is sending down a 
message. 

McAndrew is having a small house built on his island. It 
seems to be a rustic house for the Indians. The Ferguson 
children are spread over his clearing as the toads on our bank. 
How many are there ? Madame F. said to D. O. that she had 
added a boy to her stock of children since last summer. She 
was glad to have a boy, she said, as she had been having only 
girls of late. She promised to show him the infant, and she 
will — if he gives her a chance. 



Friday, July 3. 

High noon. Here it is again, the bright sun; the air am- 
brosial, and a sweet breeze, water falling. Thermometer 68. 
Five canoes went up this morning on the other side ; promised 
to stop on their way down. Party from the Club with a cook 
and stores, three gentlemen, Fearing one of them, also Hol- 
land. We hailed them and invited them as they passed. D. O. 
saw nothing this afternoon in the Princess or at Ferguson's. 
River falling, swollen still. L. saw nothing either, in the 
quick and strong water above. When he came in, D. O. 
astounded him by the information that McA. had taken four 
or five fish below. It seemed in the condition of the water 
almost incredible. John Ferguson brought word that McA. 
was fishing in the water at the rear of his premises. It seems 
the fish have run in there. The number taken needs confir- 
mation. 

It is the female salmon that comes up the river at this 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 177 

season, most plentifully; exceptionally a male is found now. 
Soon the male follows gaily, sportively, a gallant in her train ; 
here they have their honeymoon ; here beneath the limpid 
waters they build their pearly houses and enter upon the joys 
and cares of domestic life. Yesterday and since Monday no 
fishing. It is difficult to tell the sex of salmon to the inexpert 
at this season. The under jaw determines. 

Peter is a very wise man— indeed wisdom exhales from 
him at all points, from his head's crown to his feet's soles ; 
his mien is wisdom's part ; his locomotion is philosophy's very 
self. When he speaks, and it is not overmuch that he does 
speak, sagacity chops out from his lips in sententious sen- 
tences. Discretion is his handmaid ; prudence is ever at his 
outposts. Well, Peter says the salmon turn white when they 
are frightened. On the bar the other day he called L.'s atten- 
tion to salmon lying there, white as snow ; "they have been 
badly scared by the scows or the logs or something, I 'm sure," 
said Peter. "But, Peter," said I, "the salmon I took here just 
now had a back quite black and his sides were a ruddy pink." 
"No doubt," said Peter, "but he had not been scared." "Well, 
Peter, we must get one of those frightened salmon now to 
see," but the darkness came on while we were still after him. 
The Indian is no braggart. If you judge him by what he says 
of himself, you will say he is destitute enough in learning and 
in art. His dexterity is of the real kind, what there is of it. 
He goes like a mastiff straight to his work and completes it. 
But he does as little as by possibility he can, of his own accord. 

Peter said yesterday we must have salmon soon. The 
freshet carried the drive of lumber which recentlv went down 



178 ABRAHAM LANSING 

— a very large one and of good lumber — clean out to sea. 
The booms broke with the water, or the logs went over or 
under them and were lost. But the nets, which are in the 
business of overhauling the salmon headed to our pools, were 
also broken and destroyed and nothing now remains to ob- 
struct the advancing schools. This is Peter's story. L'eau en 
vient a la bouche — Le bon temps viendra. D. O. says the day 
is too fine for words to express. L. crossed the Chain of 
Rocks Brook yesterday at its mouth. It was a tug up stream. 
Peter commanded his striving canoe with much Indian em- 
phasis. He rose to the situation like a sea captain in a storm. 
Obedience was instant and we pushed through beautifully. 
It made the men puff. 

The toad has no tail, nor is he a lizard. I never saw the 
chameleon, but I have seen our toad light brownish green in 
the water, black as muck in the woods, pale olive on the stones, 
light green on the grass. If the chameleon can beat him in 
adapting his complexion to his surroundings, all I have to 
say is "Well done, chameleon, receive the chromo." 



Saturday, July 4. 
Our nation's birthday. Our "feu de joie" saluted the day 
at midnight by 13 shots. We smashed a soup plate. It 
was not a part of the celebration ; we undertook to make a fry 
pan of it for some almonds after dinner ; it went to pieces with 
a bang and our table cover has two brown patches. The crock- 
ery seemed conscious of to-day's approach. Yesterday L. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 179 

smashed the bread plate over the fire in the morning and the 
breakfast potatoes went to cinders. D. O. cracked the soup 
dish with hot water at dinner. That soup dish had always a 
suspicious aspect. It was only cracked, however, and it served 
the soup just the same and mighty poor soup it was, too. 
Whatever is the matter with Mr. Hucksley's soup? Or with 
us? We had codfish-balls at breakfast; they were good, too. 
Anyway, we ate them all. Why does n't Mrs. Beecher say 
how fishballs should be made? What, indeed, is domestic life 
without fishballs? 

The blossoms of the mountain ash are beginning to turn 
brown. Gathered a bunch of moccasin flowers on the bank 
above and sent them down, with the specimens of spectral 
fern, to the ladies at McA.'s by John Ferguson last evening. 
The only toad going now is the inkstand. He is carried, but 
in motion frequently. The rule of salt cellars applies to ink- 
stands, too, if they are toads. Showed Peter yesterday a de- 
sign for a rustic seat and pointed out a place where it might 
be built. Peter asked to have superintendence in building it, 
but the time of our departure is nearing and that thought may 
vegetate and grow when we leave these retreats. Nous verron. 



Sunday, July 5. 
We rose somewhere about 9 a. m. and breakfasted a la 
fourchette at 11. Peter and Noel gathered a huge bunch of 
moccasin flowers — squaw's-slippers we call them; they fill the 



180 ABRAHAM LANSING 

handsome pitcher on our bright table cover. It is superb. 
Would that our friends might see it! McA. said yesterday 
that his daughters would photograph the flowers we sent them. 
Indians from the Fearing, Holland, Vanderbilt party, which 
went up on the third, stopped on their way out and took down 
our letters for Delavan and Cooper. We also sent a telegram 
to Cooper — "You and Mr. Delavan get ready to fish our 
waters. Have written. Rods and flies at your disposal." 

Chickerderleguth was a gambler. The white man calls him 
Kingfisher. He was handsome, gay and prodigal, and inclined 
to knavery. He came to grief. Financial ruin overtook him ; 
the tiger whom he fought despoiled him of his fine clothes, 
and he was ashamed and hid himself away from the face of 
man in the coverts of the deepest woods. One day he took 
courage ; he went to the head Indian and prevailed on him f or 
a loan of seven dollars to get a suit of clothes. He promised 
to go fishing till he earned enough to pay back. But Chicker- 
derleguth never caught more than enough to keep body and 
soul together and so forever he fishes on, screaming over the 
rivers, early and late, lonely and afraid; starting from shore 
to shore in constant panic for his creditor. The face of every 
man is to him that of the head Indian to whom he dare not 
return. So runs the legend, as Jock gives it to Dean Sage, or 
something in this wise. Peter says Kingfisher very poor 
fisherman; miss very often; but wears good clothes. The 
Indian traditions are passing out of Indian minds; those who 
remember spearing days are few; their oldest men— Peter, the 
oldest in our party— know but little of it from experience; 
Peter says he was engaged a good deal in logging and did not 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 181 

pay much attention; could not earn much at spearing and it 
was all night work, not much sleep, and being up night after 
night did not suit him. 



Monday, July 6. 
This morning the young ladies invited us to have our photo- 
graphs taken by them in our canoes, asking us to fix time and 
place. We sent down word by James Ferguson, who had come 
up with milk, that we would be at their house at 10 a. m. to- 
morrow. 



Tuesday, July 7. 

About 10 o'clock, a little after, as the men were at their 
kettle, went down to Mr. McA's. Fog had then lifted. Had 
a glass of draught ale with Mr. McA., and brought the three 
young ladies in our canoes to camp, where they took pictures : 
first, of the easterly end of camp piazza with D. O. in hammock 
and L. at table ; second, of the camp, easterly side, with ham- 
mocks, chairs, smudge pot. D. O. and L. in the foreground, 
Steve bringing in a baking of fresh bread ; third, of D. O. and 
L. on front steps with rods ; fourth, L. in canoe with rod on 
stream in front of camp and Indians ; fifth, ditto ; sixth, D. O. 
and L. in canoes at landing with Indians. 

Went out about 4 p. m. D. O. rose two fish at the bar 
below O. pools. L. struck a fish at end of Hero Rapids which 
all hands thought at first a trout, but proved a salmon ; drew 



1 82 ABRAHAM LANSING 

him quite in to the canoe before he had his run and before 
anchor taken in. Then took anchor and fish ran up near shore. 
He chafed the leader on a rock and went off with the fly, a 
ranger. L. then went on down to Ferguson's below the barn 
and at the trees; saw nothing. Heavy fog came down early 
in the evening. About yy 2 o'clock Stearns came to camp, 
where he found D. O. sitting in the smoke of two full smudge 
pots. Dined and went to bed. 



Wednesday, July 8. 

Heavy fog at 5 a. m. ; began to rain about 6^4 o'clock. 
Hard rain until 8^ o'clock, at which time thermometer 62, 
with fog. Now 9^2 o'clock a. m. Barometer 29 1 %o- Fog 
on river and cloudy overhead. Sandflies about, now and dur- 
ing the morning. Barney brought in one of the smoked salmon 
while we were at dinner last evening, which seemed very nice. 
A solitary toad appears now and then, but their voices sing 
not, night or day. 

Went out about 1 o'clock, when the fog had cleared; the 
men had boiled the kettle and McAndrew had taken two fish 
in Princess Pool; L. to O. pools, D. O. to camp pools and 
Ferguson's. L. fished hard until after 7 p. m. ; saw noth- 
ing until about 6, when a fish jumped before him. Dropped 
down to him and he came up greedily to a Silver Doctor, but 
missed; then went for him with a Ranger, to which he fas- 
tened; started the reel and ran, but the hook came out before 
the anchor came in. D. O. fished Ferguson's pool and camp 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 183 

pool, and came in with a pound and a quarter trout ; then went 
out again at about 4 p. m. and stayed out until 8 p. m. 
He says nothing. Had O.'s trout for dinner. Steve cooked 
it well ; it was very nice, and we ate him up. McA. took three 
this morning. The senior McA. took a 33-pounder in the 
morning. One of the daughters struck a fish and lost him at 
the gaff. No sounds of the toads. 

Last year was a squirrel year. They swam the stream con- 
tinually. They also came about camp. This year we have not 
seen any; last year was hot and dry. Plenty of rain this year. 
River still high, but falling; fogs night and morning. At 
10.45 p - M - thermometer 63, barometer 29%o. Thick fog on 
the river and hills, but stars in the sky. 



Thursday, July 9. 
The day began as the night ended, with thick fog. About 
7 the fog cleared, and after that until about 1 p. m. a 
heavy rain; the day was cloudy, with occasional sunshine; at 
11 a. m. quite hot; a fine day for fishing from 7 to 11 a. m. 
D. O. fished upper pools in the morning; brought in one 
salmon weighing 18 pounds. In the afternoon took another 
weighing 23^2 pounds and lost one. L. fished camp pools, 
rose one fish, which struck the hook and was pricked, prob- 
ably. He would not come up again. Pollock, on his way 
down to the Club, lunched with us, and left about 3 p. M. 
He had been at Red Pine Mountain and Patapedia and had 



1 84 ABRAHAM LANSING 

rare fishing in the high water. A canoe went down yesterday 
with over 60 salmon. Heavy fog settled on the river soon 
after 7. The storm cleared, with a fine rainbow spanning 
the river below us. McAndrew is having rare fishing. He 
took two this morning, above the point, weighing 35 and 29 
pounds respectively; lost another there. He dropped down 
and fished Princess Pool, but took nothing there. Toads still 
silent. Picked some wild roses; first we have seen. McA. 
says they are plentiful on his island. Starlight at bed time. 



Friday, July 10. 
Fog on the river. L. went out at about 6^ o'clock; then 
a thin fog on river. About 9^2 a. m. struck a fish in middle 
O. pools; landed him below camp; he weighed 21 pounds. 
D. O. fished Camp pools; back in camp at 9^ o'clock; saw 
nothing; water risen again two or three inches. L. fished O. 
pools and bar above point without another rise until 12 m., 
when he came in. In the afternoon fished same pools till 
dark ; saw no fish ; got a trout weighing three pounds. D. O. 
had one rise in the afternoon in L. pool (Church pool). Mr. 
Stearns came down on his way out as we were ending luncheon 
and stopped and took some Dow's ale and passed about i l / 2 
hours with us very pleasantly. He had had rare sport, took 
five yesterday; was bringing down five fish, three for himself, 
two for S. Waddell. McA. took no fish, though he fished 
above point where he took two large ones yesterday; his 
brother took four at end of island. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 185 

Saturday, July 11. 
D. O. fished O. pools, took a fish in the morning ; he weighed 
eight pounds. He fished same pools in the afternoon and took 
what he says was the most gamesome fish he ever caught. The 
narrative is somewhat like this : when he went out in the 
afternoon he anchored at the lower rocks on our side, below 
the main pools, and fished with a Butcher, large size. There 
came a swirl in the water at about a ^4 cas t, or rather a swell 
of water, which attracted his attention. He referred the 
matter to Louis, who, sitting near the water, also noticed it, 
and pronounced in favor of a salmon. The motion was to the 
right of the canoe, and to reach it better D. O. had the position 
of the canoe changed somewhat to the right; put on a large 
Silver Doctor and tried without result; then tried a small 
Butcher, to which the fish came up and showed his head and 
back fin ; then he rested awhile and put on a small Black Dose 
(double hooks, purchased in Montreal on our way up), to 
which he came up from the shore side, sidewise, with a fierce 
rush and struck the hook ; the reel ran and the men sprung to 
anchor, but it was not in when the fly came away. D. O. saw 
the fish as he came up and put him down among the thirties ; 
assuming that the fish had been pricked, he moved up stream, 
intending to try him again. Moving up, and having anchored, 
a small salmon jumped to the right, high and dry out of the 
water — high enough to dry his back in the sunlight and to 
shake all the water from his tail, or thereabouts— higher than 
any fish ever jumped before in his presence, with his know- 
ledge ; then, the fish being little, he debated whether he should 
waste time on him. He had come down with such a slap on 



1 86 ABRAHAM LANSING 

the water that Louis, who was looking up stream away from 
the fish, turned with the idea that some one was stoning the 
canoe from the shore. If it had not been a salmon his stomach 
must have suffered, and maybe it did. It was a little dark, 
and D. O. concluded to try him with a small Silver Doctor, 
and did so without a sign ; then tried him with a large Butcher, 
to which he just moved the water ; then with a small Butcher, 
which he wholly disdained ; then he gave him a medium sized 
Brown Fairy (Light Brown in Forest's nomenclature), at 
which he came with a furious rush, seized it with a bound 
clean into the air and, without waiting a second, started down 
stream at a pace of about a mile a minute. Half the line ran 
out before the anchor came in; then he turned and made three 
huge jumps, first up, then down stream, and across the stream 
in such rapid succession that you could scarce count between 
each of them. D. O. had not moved his canoe, which was 
near shore. Then the fish ran up stream ; had started almost 
straight from the canoe in his flight down the river and turned 
towards the middle somewhat before running back. He came 
up just abreast of the canoe on the river side. D. O. went 
ashore, having reeled in as the fish returned. He quartered 
him in to the shore and had only about 30 feet of line un- 
reeled, was bringing him in, when he made two rushing jumps 
in marvelously quick succession towards the middle of the 
river ; D. O. gave him rod to the water and paid out line with 
his hand as quickly as possible ; then concluded, as his nose was 
up stream and he was disposed to work, to give him a chance 
in that strong current and held him awhile where he was, five 
or six minutes, straining him a little across the current and 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 187 

toward the shore. Then he gradually drew him in and at 
about 30 feet from shore he repeated his last-mentioned 
double somersault performance and rushed away to the mid- 
dle ; then was brought in again and brought down stream, the 
last rush being a little above the canoe — to the shore — when 
he made a jump and a short rush, and surrendered to the 
fatigue of his own violent exertions and to the pressure from 
the rod and came into the gaff, which quickly penetrated his 
plump shoulder and brought him to the bludgeon and the 
canoe, where they covered him with green boughs. He now 
lies in pickle for the smoke house. He weighed eight pounds. 

O. tried the larger fish again but to no purpose. L. fished 
Camp pools in the morning. Tried hard for the fish in the 
L. (Church) pool, without any success; fished the slide and 
the tail of Princess pool, without a sign. In the afternoon L. 
felt the hot feet of the midget, and there are myriads of them 
along the whole stretch of our water; after sunset to-night— 
at Ferguson's and at the tail of the Princess pool — bites were 
plenty at both ends of the canoe and in its midst ; they were 
all from the air, none from the water, not a sign. 

In the morning Miss McAndrew (Miss Belle), with Miss 
Mabel and their aunt and camera, Miss Belle poling in the 
bow, John Jerome, the Indian, in stern, came up ; passed L. as 
he was fishing near camp ; hailed him and invited him to have 
his canoe, etc., retaken, the picture of the other day not being 
satisfactory. They then went up stream, where D. O. was, 
and as he came down took him and Indians and canoe; then 
came to Camp and took two other pictures— one from the 
easterly side of front porch, another of D. O. and L. on front 



1 88 ABRAHAM LANSING 

steps, with rods (the other picture of this subject not being 
good enough for exhibition). Holland came in on his way- 
down; stayed a short time with us and invited us to fish 
Brandy Brook on Monday. Night cool, and starlight. The 
stars glittered over the hills opposite with all their old-time 
fervor. Long may they be undimmed by clouds. Fire com- 
forting in the evening and Steve built a beauty. We watched 
the flame crawl along the sticks and toward the back as if 
guided by trains of magnetism until the whole mass gave out 
one bright sheet of continuous flame, while the glowing 
embers shone through the chinks among the round sticks. 



Sunday, July 12. 
Catlin's scow, with a moderate settlement aboard and boats 
and canoes and stores to match, piled high and drawing deep 
with its burden, came up between 8 and 9 a. m. Catlin 
was up and dressed, you may be sure, and breakfasted too. 
Hearty and ruddy, with a good capon-lined effect, like all 
about him, he stood amidships, commander of the situation 
and the craft and well became the position. The fragrance 
of his Havana wafted ashore to us like the perfume of some 
aromatic woods afloat. Catlin, like some others, graduated 
from the Adirondacks to the Rangeley and Kennebago and 
the Cupsuptic, sometimes drawing a line and fish box over the 
Mooselookmaguntic and then to the Ristigouche. This many 
a year he has reaped an annual harvest of health and pleasure 
from these "banks and braes." Once a boat (a Gaspe boat, 




z 
o 
2 



u, 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 189 

for Catlin likes that best), chair-rigged and adapted to his 
figure, which waneth not with the revolving summers, took 
all his stores and the Indians and Catlin, too, but three horses, 
rigged abreast and tugging hard, moved his ponderously laden 
caravel. To-day Catlin had no time to stop — who has en 
route to a salmon pool ? 

Fearing came in as we were about to sit down to breakfast; 
we invited him to luncheon, whatever subterfuge that may 
have been. He replied, with a degree of irrelevancy, that he 
had already breakfasted. Maybe it is not very clear that 
luncheon is possible before 11 a. m. and of a Sunday morn- 
ing. Fearing took some claret and so did we, and, when 
Fearing left, fell to our coffee and eggs just as if it were 
breakfast. 

The hills behind us — a reredos to the altars of our Lares 
and Penates — following the general course of the river to the 
road of the upper side of the clearing, project themselves 
thence nearly to the bank which battlements our front ; in this 
w T ise they confine, from two sides, the stretch of table-land 
upon which Camp Albany overlooks the Ristigouche some 30 
feet below. Behold the play of its light and shadows, wit- 
nesses to all its mad tumults and its merry moods ! Along the 
slope of the projecting spur of hills, seen from the narrow rim 
between the brow of the bank and the foot of the acclivity, a 
slender path, elsewhere scarcely perceptible, traces its way 
steeply to the summit. Half way up you command a striking 
view of our cabin and its premises ; rising to the plateau of 
wooded land above, the path winds along the brink, recedes 
into the woods and loses itself in a road. Larry responds no 



190 ABRAHAM LANSING 

longer to any human summons, not even to Olcott's, and no 
signboards tell of its destination or its purposes, but assuredly 
this road was a convenience, and not very long ago, as its use 
evinces to beings who know the mechanism of wood sleds, if 
not of wheels, and their utility in two-fold, if not four-fold, 
combination ; it makes its way far enough seemingly for sev- 
eral Sabbath days' journeys, too far for a Sabbath morning's 
stroll into the depths of the forest. 

It was not much after high noon, judging by recollections 
of the sunlight, that this path tempted us to its ascent. Paus- 
ing to view the midway prospect, we wound along its mossy 
and perfumed way and reached the road. The sun was bright 
overhead; the air elastic; silence, potent but unreserved, was 
the fitting mood of the Sabbath morning. The narrow path 
we partly knew; the broader road was a pleasing discovery. 
Following the trend of either, they bore the burden of a mys- 
tery which aroused our curiosity. To the right and left at 
very regular intervals as we went along were intelligible signs 
of the recent work of human hands; twigs bent and broken 
with a method and precision which unmistakably evinced de- 
sign and plainly said "this way came I," or "we," as the case 
might have been. Why the twigs were broken, it was easy to 
conjecture ; the language was clear and distinct ; by whom we 
could scarcely hazard a guess. Why should any one be ex- 
ploring these solitudes away from the stream at this time of 
year, and why especially should he, on these easily discerned 
ways, mark out his course with so much care? The explana- 
tion may be nearer at hand and less difficult than it seems, but 
the fact remains to us an enigma. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 191 

The season is exceptional, as last season was; this, for its 
abundance, its excess of rain ; that, for its scorchinsr heat 
and dryness. Last year it was as if another Phaeton had 
spilled the sun and set the world afire; this year, high Olym- 
pus should have reeled upon his base, with the terrific thun- 
der which seemed to have unbottomed the rivers of the 
sky. Jupiter Tonans has only been outrivaled by Jupiter 
Pluvius. 

But it is never too wet for the mosses. The rioting sky had 
wasted itself like a spendthrift; it had fouled the clear river 
with sand and swelled it to an angry and resistless torrent; 
had drowned our pools, driven the fish into our neighbor's 
waters and depopulated our own; had made shipwreck of our 
sport ; but it had clothed the landscape with marvelous verdure 
and filled the woods with beauty. What its plumage is to the 
wild bird, the ivy to the desolated wall, the azure to the sky. 
the shadows to the lake, the mosses and the ferns are to the 
inner woods; and the flowers are innumerable small arms 
censing the sanctuary ; purple and gold in its tapestried floors ; 
minute rainbows in the azure, finches among the ivy leaves, 
prisms in the shaded waters ; bright pencilling on the wood- 
duck's breast. Mosses are to science as the mollusca in the 
order of plants ; relegated by the decree of a botanic court to 
inferior rank in the nobility of the vegetable kingdom ; con- 
demned in its tentative catalogues, upon a pretext of defective 
organism, to exile from their wonted and native surroundings. 
The vision of the botanist does not readily perceive their buds 
and flowers and straightway he brings from ancient Greece a 
mighty epithet : "Behold," he exclaims, "the marriages of the 



192 ABRAHAM LANSING 

mosses are secret; they are cryptogamous and upon that 
offense I excommunicate them from the temple of Flora." 

In the economy of nature the decree of science is but brutum 
fulmen. Science is content if it can assort and label; her laws 
are the children of her own self-sufficient generalization and 
she cherishes them with material and exclusive love. She 
knows no edict superior to the uniformities on which they are 
based ; cold and colorless are her temples ; banners hang not 
on her walls; anthems attune not her ceremonies; halos en- 
circle not her ministers ; incense rises not at her altars. Fancy 
says that she is "star eyed." Yes, gazing, cyclopean, as the 
pole star in winter, which pierces the darkness like a stiletto, 
but cannot like the warm sun dispel it. Tradition, terror, 
scruple, sentiment, never cloud her vision or restrain her 
energy. 

And so it comes to pass that he who lives nearest to nature's 
self enters the very sanctum of her mysteries ; notes her move- 
ments and her processes with clearest insight; observes, as it 
were, and records the pulsations and throbbings of her very 
heart ; is prone to irreverence most of all. Yet a problem in- 
vests every physical fact, for the solution of which the rigid 
formulas of science are inadequate. When she has ascertained 
the law and its conditions and seeks to know its cause, her 
generalizations and her mathematics fail; she stands upon a 
plane with the child of nature ; her proof is circumstantial ; her 
conclusions inference, not demonstration. Does she know the 
law of gravitation, she must conjecture what gravitation is 
and how it becomes existent. Do the moon and its influence 
chiefly account for the ocean tides? Do the sun and its 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 193 

evaporating power and the wind and its cumulative force 
resolve the problem of the ocean currents? Behind it all re- 
main the momentous questions : Whence came these potent 
agencies ? What caused them to act with results so admirable 
and beneficial? And for those questions and such as those, 
science has no formula, no analysis, no solution but through 
hypothesis and analogy ; she enters a domain in which she can 
no longer wear the robes of authority. Here, then, on equal 
footing Mr. Wiseman encounters Mr. Goodman with power 
to question his authority and to dispute the accuracy of his 
conclusions ; willing enough to yield to every scientific demon- 
stration — unprepared to acquiesce in hypothesis or assump- 
tion, which does not ascribe the natural world, not only to an 
adequate, but to an intelligent, cause, if there be a difference. 
The human mind is not fashioned for ready belief in acci- 
dent or chance, as the origin of wondrous systems; or to credit 
that they began without authority, act without guidance, 
achieve without design, or benefit without purpose. It is not 
to be questioned that physical science has overthrown multi- 
tudes of mortal vagaries ; from infancy its track has been 
along the paths and through the mists of error, lifting there 
the light of reason and of truth ; and conviction ever marks 
its progress and confirms its advancing steps, when it moves 
as science or kindles its beacons with glimmering ray, or takes 
its ground with vacillating step. Certainty of knowledge, 
exactness of premise and inevitable conclusion are at once its 
law and its necessity, and these requirements of veritable 
science it does not bring into the contest with belief and faith 
and hope, to whose domain its generalizations do not extend. 



194 ABRAHAM LANSING 

And your Goodman will not be driven from his vantage 
ground by anything less. A type of the race civilized and 
savage, in all time, he reads the cosmic volume ; finds at every 
page the impress of intelligence ; ascribes the wonders and the 
harmonies of the natural world to an author; studies himself; 
knows the impulses and desires of his being; makes that author 
a personal Deity and yields to the instinct of worship which is 
in him. 

There was born in Normandy in the middle of the 18th cen- 
tury one of the world's mathematical geniuses — Pierre Simon 
Laplace. His marvelous sagacity quickly mastered the entire 
range of the exact sciences as they were understood in that 
day and lifted him to the plane of Galileo and Newton in 
astronomical research and discovery. Since Newton's day, at 
least, he is accounted second to no astronomer. Napoleon 
Bonaparte, with all the greatness and versatility of his own 
mental gifts, marvelled at the powers of Laplace and seeking 
to utilize them for the good of France, conferred on him posi- 
tions of high political trust, in which he bore himself with little 
sense or judgment. "He carried," said the exile at St. Helena, 
"the spirit of infinitesimal calculus into the management of 
business." And infinitesimal calculus will not fit the problem 
of the ultimate cause of all things ; until it can be made to do 
so, philosophy, assuming by reason of its special learning or 
by means of its special processes, to work out and teach its 
solution, is merely a doctrinaire ; the common man who in his 
range of reasoning includes his own nature, as well as the 
manifestations of the physical world, refuses to yield his 
ground. It is Apelles and the Shoemaker over again. Science, 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 195 

teaching in its own sphere of research, the truth of which it 
has certain knowledge, commands attention and respect; but 
entering the sphere of faith in the spirit of infinitesimal cal- 
culus, man exclaims, with the artist, Ne sutor ultra crepidam. 
We found the mosses and ferns holding high festival in the 
woods. They had been well nourished by the rains and they 
vied with each other in luxuriance of growth, as well as in 
richness of verdure. The light which came through the open- 
ings overhead from a bright sun in a clear sky painted them 
brilliantly and gave form and expression to the shadows 
which rested on them. Mosses and ferns are exceedingly 
beautiful ; but the ferns carry with them a hint of the Wardian 
case and the conservatory; they are the proper offspring of 
tropical varieties and they suggest the rank, creeping, pitiless 
and selfish vegetation of the tropics, their dense overladen air 
and matted impenetrable thickets and parasitic growths. But 
the mosses are true and characteristic children of the north. 
They do not sink their roots deeply into the earth as the tree 
does nor extend their length high in air like the wild grape; 
they are not as long-lived as the ivy is, but vigor and elastic 
life are marked features in their being and seem in them quite 
disproportioned to the delicacy of their mechanism. Crypto- 
gamia they may be ; they nevertheless exhibit a fecundity and 
thriftiness which are almost unsurpassed; and they are not 
more modest and comely in their cryptogamic lives than inde- 
pendent, unobtrusive and merciful in their thrift. They are 
wonted to all circumstances and man may learn valuable les- 
sons from them. They rebound from injury ; they laugh at 
adversity; the rain does not fall too copiously; the sun does 



196 ABRAHAM LANSING 

not shine too fiercely ; the wind does not blow too bleakly ; the 
ground is never too sterile nor the rock too barren for them. 
There is much good to be spoken of them, and nothing to my 
knowledge to their discredit, let botany place them where it 
will in its rules of caste. 

If the mosses were sentient beings, we would inevitably call 
them Good Samaritans, and in truth they are the Good Samari- 
tans of the vegetable kingdom — Sisters of Charity and of 
Mercy, who assuage the wounds and cover the infirmities of 
nature. Is there a sterile spot, on which the sun does not shine 
and is abandoned by vegetation, they weave over it a web of 
verdure ; or a fallen trunk on which decay is writing its doom, 
they hasten to shelter and screen it; does a tender fiber or 
delicate root shiver in the damp shadows, they cover it with 
friendly vestments; they climb the weather side of the trees 
which are too rudely exposed and temper the north wind to 
the aged and tender bark; they come to the very rocks and 
stones and shield them from the wear and tear of the ele- 
ments; their modest cells are thousands of drinking cups 
which hold the dew and the rain for the minutest dwellers of 
the woods and habitations wherein they may hide and rest. 
Daintily they lie upon the soil, these lace embroideries with 
which the earth's robes are tissued, seemingly pervaded with 
the spirit of kindliness and beauty and seeking opportunities 
for the exhibition of their beneficence. 

If we regard the mosses only through the spectacles or per- 
haps more properly the microscope of the botanist, we may 
learn that they are cryptogamic ; that hitherto so many vari- 
eties have been discovered and that thev may be classified 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 197 

according to certain observed peculiarities in such and so many 
different classes; but from all that, we can arrive at a most 
inadequate idea of their real worth and value. Moisture is 
to the mosses as their daily bread. The salmon scarcely love 
the water more. Any one who has tried his hand at bringing 
a salmon out from the wet knows something of the tenacity 
of that love. Yet few, if any, plants endure the midsummer 
heat as mosses do. The dry and parching air bleaches them 
gray and shrivels them into light, interwoven, stringy and 
elastic filaments, but does not deprive them of vitality that is 
held in reserve for a renewal of the rain, by which all their 
freshness is revived and they are stimulated to new life and 
beauty. So when gathered they acquire and retain the same 
spongy elasticity and durability. The bird knows the value 
of the mosses when it lines its nest ; so does the woodsman 
when he fills the chinks in his cabin walls or covers the interior 
of its roof. Any one may know it who would moderate the 
heat of an exposed dwelling, or, like "Imperial Caesar," 
"patch a wall to expel the winter's flow." The plants know 
it whose roots they protect and the insect life which they har- 
bor; to the frozen zone they are the first suggestion of the 
green fields, for they push their sturdy growth into the very 
borders of the polar land ; and on the mountain tops, above the 
line at which the trees and plants and shrubs succumb to the 
inclement air or ungenial soil, nearest the sky of all the moun- 
tains' vegetable life, the mosses hold a footing and maintain a 
growth. 

What purposes they serve beneath the surface of the water, 
who knows? We are apt to think of them there as houses for 



198 ABRAHAM LANSING 

the smaller dwellers in that element and as pasture lands 
whereon the vegetarian fishes graze. Along the margins of 
the streams and lakes we know what multitudes of am- 
phibious lives people them, and how in the congenial swamps 
they knit the bogs together and help to make the peat for fuel 
and for fertilization. They are the reindeers' food and the 
Laplanders' bed, for he makes his bed and his pillows, too, of 
the rich dried mosses which grow luxuriantly among the Lap- 
land snows. Dainty couches they must make, too, for the wild 
denizens of these and other woods, whereon the hunted deer, 
escaping from the dogs, may lie and rest, or, wounded, purple 
them with its life. 

Recollection serves me of a stream which winds its tortuous 
way from the Cupsuptic Lake through thickly wooded forests 
to where a stretch of rocky rapids and a fall send down their 
tumbling waters to enliven its sluggish surface; of mosses in 
the green of the early summer bloom, covering the banks 
above the falls as with an abundant mantle and paths thread- 
ing their way among them, by which the ascent is made to 
quiet waters beyond ; of noonings on the paths and among 
those mosses, and of repose cushioned and pillowed like the 
Laplanders upon clean, bright, fragrant and seductive beds, 
fragrant not with the breath of perfume, but with a delicious 
absence of any odor, excepting it may be a savor of the loamy 
earth beneath them. A bed of mosses straightway recalls the 
Cupsuptic stream; if other days than those passed among its 
sylvan shade have yielded equal measures of enjoyment, they 
have been bright and pleasant days indeed ; pleasurable in fore- 
taste, fruition and retrospect ; such days become a corporate 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 199 

part of one's being evermore; and brighter memories do not 
spring from the Cnpsuptic days than of the splendid mosses 
which carpeted those woods. 

And the Lapps, who are also fishermen, although their 
dwellings are rude and meager, have mosses for their beds 
and deserve them, not for being fishermen only, but in recom- 
pense as well for toils and combats in the ice and snows of 
their fierce enduring winters. The promise of a bed of mosses 
should physic all the pain of toil ; and what boots a fiery mid- 
night sun to one who rests on such a couch? The luxuriant 
growth of the Lapland mosses has its counterpart often, I 
believe, in those of other high latitudes. It is strange that in 
the coldest climates they should be so stimulated to great 
fecundity, but such seems to be the economy of nature. On 
the northern slopes of "Greenland's icy mountains" it is said 
that they find a congenial resting-place ; and that on the islands 
of Alaska they rival in density and luxuriance the vegetation 
of the tropics, covering the ground to great depth and actually 
preventing by their abundance the exploration of the forests. 
But observe that the mosses grow where other vegetation will 
not thrive ; they crowd nothing else and make way when other 
growths are possible and more useful. A farmer may find 
them in his meadows and upon his fields, when he has neg- 
lected the soil, but they quickly retire and disappear when 
cultivation encourages the growth of grains or grass or cereals 
more suited to his taste and profit. But it is in the character 
of a nurse to the genus of new vegetable life that mosses sub- 
serve their most marked and admirable purposes, for, where 
the soil offers no refuge to the seeds of the plants and vines 



200 ABRAHAM LANSING 

and trees, they hold out a kindly shelter to receive them, gath- 
ering meanwhile, as chance or the birds or the wind bring 
them, such specks and grains of nourishing substance as come 
within their reach, and even contributing to fertilization by 
their own decay. So they help to encourage and foster vege- 
tation. So it may be forests have grown up to cover the barren 
rocks and green fields have bloomed and blossomed over the 
waste places. 

It is, of course, quite an error to charge the mosses with 
the parentage of decay. The pendant gray and spectral 
growth which hangs ominously from the timber and branches, 
which is said to be the winter food of the caribou and which 
seems the sure precursor of the tree's declining vitality, how- 
ever specious its appearance, is not a moss at all ; it belongs to 
another family, — the family of the lichens. Mosses are to be 
associated with decay only in some such sense as the oasis is 
associated with the desert; or cooling and grateful springs of 
water with parching thirst; or welcome food with hunger. 
Mildew, rust, mould, fungi and all abnormities must claim no 
kinship with the mosses, filled with the juices of a rich life and 
color and are not to be thought of in the same connection. If 
it had never been our good fortune to see any mosses, we 
should nevertheless know that they are beautiful and in every 
way pleasing, for their comeliness is a "household word." 

The rose, like the mosses, a child of the temperate and 
colder climates, is the undoubted, undisputed queen of flowers. 
The learned Dr. Boteler, who, according to Sir Isaac of 
gracious memory, discovered or announced the surprising 
merits of the strawberry, and who evidently had never en- 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 201 

countered the "Wilson seedling," might have found out more 
readily that God doubtless never made a better flower than 
the rose (it would have been no new discovery to others), but 
the Doctor would have carried the world with him in such an 
assertion. Nature sometimes excels herself in fertility of 
resource and the greatness of her surprises. It was so when, 
after having exhausted every apparent expedient in making 
so complete and perfect a flower as the rose, she still enhanced 
the marvelous effect by making the moss-rose. If the straw- 
berry be best of berries, then the rose is the strawberry of 
flowers, and the moss-rose of roses. Hear Anacreon : 

"Not more the rose the queen of flowers 
Outblushes all the bloom of bowers, 
Than she unrivalled grace discloses. 
The sweetest rose, where all are roses." 

Sometimes a pink is decked out in the likeness of the 
mosses ; sometimes a tracing of their colored stems embedded 
in the chalcedony enhances its charms; but nature's grand 
tribute to the beauty of its own handiwork is that having made 
a faultless flower, the rose, and fairest among them all, it 
reproduced the semblance of the moss as its crowning glory. 
And painters and poets crown the roofs and rim the well- 
buckets and cap the garden walls and soften the garden ways 
and cover the baskets of garden flowers; attire the hill-sides 
and mellow the brooks; brighten the fountains and gladden 
the woods and illumine the valleys and clothe the trees with 
mossiness, until the moss is a typical child of song and story — 
a synonym in our minds with grace and beauty. 

Our toads are not only eccentric but irrepressible; it seems 



202 ABRAHAM LANSING 

that they must have a place in all our narratives. They had 
found their way into the woods before us and recalled the 
fact that we had observed them at times during the heavy 
rains, journeying up the bank by our steps ; but whether they 
had sought the kindly shelter of the trees and mosses, as more 
congenial than an incessant and pelting rain outside; or in- 
stinct leads them at this particular time of year to take to the 
woods; or some other wise motive governs them, here we 
found them — not gregarious and convivial, as in the jolly sun- 
shine on the beach, but solitary, each a hermit in his own cell ; 
his voice silent, his person isolated, figuratively his nose 
broken, — figuratively, for, in point of fact, a toad's nose can 
never be broken — he has none — he has neither tail nor nose. 
There is no certainty he ever had a tail at all, but it is well 
authenticated by Micmac tradition that soon after "the days 
before the light" the Great Spirit gave to the primal toads, 
male and female, very proper noses, each of them, and that 
for very many generations that useful organ or member 
abode with their progeny. What difference it made in their 
habits, or what effect it had upon their melody, is not handed 
down. Their vocalism is now purely guttural ; what it was or 
might be if also nasal it is fearful to conjecture; the toad's 
loss is probably creation's gain. 

The legend runs somewhat in substance like this : "The 
chief of men and beasts was son of a she turtle; he had 
stepped upon the stage of life before his time and somewhat 
in the character of accessory to his mother's death. He and 
his younger brother, being still unborn and impatient, both of 
them, of their allotted time, the younger cleft an opening in 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 203 

his mother's side, and so both, fatally to her, without trouble 
to themselves, came into the world by a short cut. It is fair 
to say that this was against the elder's remonstrance, but he 
evinced even at that early age a wonderful promptness to avail 
himself of his opportunities and so was eldest born. Like 
another Cain or Romulus, he signalized his early career by 
promptly slaying that only brother and then proceeded to rule 
with great skill and dignity and benevolence, as the manner of 
his birth and his early history presaged. He waxed mighty 
and the beasts conspired against him; they summoned a secret 
council to which, vainly taking the form of witches, the porcu- 
pine and the toad went. The great chief knew what was in 
their hearts; he assumed the shape of an ancient squaw and 
went and sat by the dissemblers, to whom he humbly put the 
question, how they expected to compass his death. It was the 
toad who answered, and the answer he gave was emphatic and 
impolite. He told him— well, an evasive answer— so the great 
chief, whose English name is liar, gently touched the noses of 
the toad and porcupine and when they looked at each other 
those organs had disappeared and the toad and porcupine 
lament the loss to this day." 

It must be owned that the winged insects of the woods often 
make purgatory of paradise to those who are not armed 
against them, as the saints are armed in panoply of virtuous 
deeds ; that they hunt and howl at times in packs like wolves, 
and are far more bold and carnivorous, and frequently make 
themselves far too manifest there; but as to other animal life, 
although it peoples the woods, it is no easy matter to find it. 
In hollows and nests and caverns and various retreats are 



204 ABRAHAM LANSING 

many wary inmates who know the art of concealment and 
practice it admirably. A bird's shadow gleams over the 
foliage and is gone; a glimpse of the bird itself, or a momen- 
tary view of some rapidly moving creature is occasionally 
possible, but a certain expectant repose holds the forest in its 
embrace in man's presence. Yet there are charms that over- 
come the reserve of nature; music is one of them. The trees 
danced to the lute of the Thracian Orpheus and the birds sang 
to-day to the music of D. O.'s whistling. A single call in the 
tune of the solitary thrush evoked a distant reply and repeated 
summons in the same refrain filled the boughs with birds — 
as it seemed of various sorts — but the melody was that of the 
thrush, with some chippering which might not be theirs ; there 
were great excitement and curiosity in the trees and bushes 
about us and calls and replies and retreats and advances and 
fluttering wings and agitated feathers. The birds were not 
more curious than we, but far less passive; we had changed 
roles; ours was that of concealment, theirs of bold curiosity 
and aggression. 

Many as the years are in which at this nesting season, which 
is also the season of song, our visits to his summer haunts have 
brought us in continual hearing of this bird, one of us, at 
least, perhaps both, had never distinguished him by sight from 
his fellows in the woods ; often his note has sounded overhead 
and in close proximity, yet it came as if from the unseen air, 
and the little fellow would not be detected in flagrante delicto. 
Even now repeated over and over and all about us, we peered 
in vain to find the diminutive body from which it came. At 
length, having removed to a position less sheltered, we spied 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 205 

among the boughs a little feathery form pulsating to the 
refrain and presently, in reward for persistence and patience, 
it flew out on a naked limb some 30 feet above us, raised its 
head and repeated its song again and again. The sight is 
scarcely less pleasing than the melody; very much in the atti- 
tude of a fowl drinking at a stream the little bird pours out its 
refrain to the sky. Now it is somewhat mortifying to learn 
that the bird which in the woods above all others had excited 
our curiosity, which had for some reason or other been 
awarded a place in the distinguished class of thrushes, and 
was invariably given the romantic name, solitary thrush, is 
after all a sparrow; Albicollii. the white-necked, white- 
throated sparrow, technically they call him from the pure 
white of the feathers upon his throat. Peabody bird they call 
him also, from his song. His white throat, his ash grey 
breast, his black and white wings, his canary-like physique and 
his sparrow bill were plainly visible to us ; we shall know him 
now, silent or singing, wherever we meet. 

The enterprising philanthropist who a few years ago peo- 
pled North America with the English sparrow, by setting him 
free here, struck a cruel blow at the fame of the bird's Amer- 
ican cousins. But the merit of the white-throat dwells not in 
his name ; that he is a sparrow tends not to degrade him, but 
to elevate his kind ; and to see and hear him sing, as he sang 
for us. would almost make us tolerant of the pampered, un- 
canny little feathered morsel of brutal voracity which eats the 
grain in summer and makes himself a nuisance about our 
houses in spring and fall and winter; perhaps all the good 
qualities of the American bird are requisite to moderate the 



206 ABRAHAM LANSING 

disrepute which he has brought — this foreign weasel — to the 
name of sparrow among us. Yet there are cousins here beside 
the "white-throat" who never came from England, a whole 
tribe of them, song sparrows of various qualities, whose at- 
tainments in song and whose habits of life entitle them to a 
place in the best circles of bird society. The English creature 
is ornithologically, that is to say, arbitrarily and scientifically, 
so unmistakable a sparrow that his relatives here cannot dis- 
own him as such, but to their credit be it said they are never 
known to admit these foreign cousins to any social or domestic 
or cousinly relationship whatever. The atmosphere was very 
clear, and we went over to Toad Brook to take a look at the 
view. No one can know what a view is there, up stream and 
down, who has not stood on the plateau below the brook's 
mouth. 



Monday, July 13. 
At 53^ a. m. we had breakfast and were off for Brandy 
Brook, where we spent the day. D. O. fished right side in the 
morning, raised six fish of which he captured two, weighing 
30I/2 and 9 pounds. In the afternoon D. O. took two more 
weighing 12}^ and 10 pounds. L. fished left side near the 
brook and got hold of one fish in the morning, but he went 
away after playing him some time. In the afternoon he tried 
the right side near by the rocks above the brook ; four rose to 
his flies, one of them three times, another twice ; none of them 
took hold. We lunched on Dr. Mason's piazza about noon 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 207 

time and afterwards made a bed of its floor and slept soundly 
with our fishing bags under our heads. The day was cool and 
bright in the early morning and no fog; bright and warm at 
midday and in the afternoon ; the flies were omnipresent and 
omnipotent. They ruled all space; the cows swam the river 
in terror of them ; the midget is a monarch and a tyrant when 
the atmosphere just suits him. 



Tuesday, July 14. 

L. took a salmon in the O. pool in the morning ; he weighed 
12 pounds. D. O. struck one in the Princess pool, in the 
evening, but he pulled out. D. O. sent a 30^2 pound fish to 
Frederick Olcott, New York. D. O. called and saw the pho- 
tographs at McA.'s and pronounced them excellent. Retired 
about 10.45. Clouds in the sky, no stars ; toads singing feebly. 
Thermometer 60%. Barometer 20/K0. Sand flies plenty on 
the stream in the evening; we are happy in the possession of 
three fine smudge pots; two of them make us comfortable at 
Camp and did service this evening. 

McAndrew says one of his Indians, after making repeated 
unsuccessful attempts to gaff a salmon, brought up to the 
beach, handed the gaff to the bowman, declining to make an- 
other effort, declaring that the salmon was in terror of him. 
Peter says a salmon fears nothing more than a man on the 
beach with a gaff. Had some trout for our dinner. Asked 
Steve how large a trout he had known to be in the river and 
he told us that he had once speared a trout at Red Pine Moun- 



208 ABRAHAM LANSING 

tain which he had mistaken for a salmon. He had no means 
of weighing him, but he guessed his weight at about 10 
pounds ; he never knew a larger trout in the stream than that. 



Wednesday, July 15. 
The Riviere de Muscalonge, says Peter, which is the River 
of the Muscalonge, Muscalonge being from the French masque 
allonge, long snout, comes into the St. Lawrence almost along- 
side of the Riviere du Loup, which is the River of the Wolf; 
and near its confluence with the St. Lawrence, the habitants 
used to take, maybe they take now, I don't know, I 'm sure, 
muscalonge of great size and very many of them. A stiff pole, 
a strong cord, a sinker, a cod hook, a mass of lob worms and 
good strong limbs did the business for them. There was not 
much finesse about it; wet the ground if the weather is dry; 
with a lantern in the night among the high grass you might, 
if skillful, gather the worms as children gather blueberries. 
Large, lubberly, strong fellows, lying with the tips of their tails 
in the earth among the roots and their bodies at length recum- 
bent from them. Far more of finesse is required to gather 
them than to catch the big fish. The prehensible abilities of 
the human digits are something wonderful when you come to 
consider them ; but they can only cope with the retractile 
bodies of those wary invertebrates by using all their dexterity 
and their dexterity is of little use without celerity and stealth. 
Those bodies, without apparent eyes or ears or organs of 
sense, brown, inert, solid, plump and clammy, are wary 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 209 

enough to know the robin's and the blackbird's approach and 
can retreat into the bosom of mother earth with a recoil as 
sudden as that of a new steel spring, but they can be gathered. 
Crowd on the worms till the whole mass wriggles, ends and 
sides, toss it into the quick water and soon you may draw the 
big fish ashore by main force, if you have enough of it, and 
the cord and pole and hook are what they should be. 

At 10.40 p. m. there is a bright new moon, and stars besides 
and the toads are singing again. 

Thursday, July 16. 
The day bright and clear, crystal the water. Started early 
for Chamberlain Shoals and fished by permission of Mr. Her- 
bert Ives, Mr. Stearns and Dr. Campbell of Montreal, the 
waters of their Club. D. O. went above and took two fish 
weighing 18 and 7^2 pounds, and came in to Camp after dark 
with a lighted gig lamp. L. fished down and had his luncheon 
at Camp. We had purposed to take some flambeaux and come 
down at night, but the plan was not carried out. We had mail 
from below in the afternoon, brought up by the scow. 



Friday, July ly. 
Cloudy. Thermometer 60. Barometer 2g 8 Ao- L. started 
at 6 a. m. for Jourdan's Portage Brook pool; rain at about 
ioj^ a. m. He took two fish and a gilse at the brook, weight 
18^4, nine and three pounds. In the afternoon he took two 
weighing 24 and S l /> pounds. 



210 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Took Waddell's guardian some tea; found him camped 
below the mouth of brook and invited him to come down when 
we broke camp or before and get some articles for his camp 
use. D. O. held a good fish a few moments at Chain of Rocks 
Brook in the morning and in the afternoon struck a very large 
one in the O. pools, which fought hard and was finally lost, 
through Barney's attempt to gaff him from the canoe and 
fouling and snapping the line with the gaffing stick. 



Saturday, July 18. 
A bright day. L. spent the morning at Jourdan's Portage 
Brook. He struck two fish but did not hold them; the hook 
came away before getting ashore. A number of others rose, 
all to the dun wing. Went down to Camp for luncheon. 
When the eaves are dripping with the wet of the morning 
mists, breakfast pleads with a sorry visage at its best. An egg 
will cook in two minutes, but it takes the water from 10 to 20 
to boil. Time is voted precious at that hour, and it is gen- 
erally a cold comfort, our breakfast, and it gets, as it deserves, 
a very cold shoulder; is usually dispatched in detachments of 
one, without an appetite, for conscience', or the stomach's sake, 
and not for love. But it is a tonic for the luncheon hour, 
such a breakfast, calling every day of this vacation time a 
feast day, and if there are any Ember Days here we are not 
aware of them. Midway between the egg and apple, comes 
le champ de repos du jour, — its Sans Souci and Sabbath, the 
semitone and cadence in its rhythmic movements, day's vernal 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 211 

time when energy and zeal recuperate. This unruffled and 
serene period lies hard by — sometimes invades — the confines 
of the shadowy realm whose flowers exhale their fragrance 
and display their colors through the mists of dreams. A dic- 
tionary which paraded the word "laziness" at that hour should 
be and would be banished from the premises ; every semblance 
of that grievous sin is then accredited to repose, which is the 
duty of the hour and not only justified, commended, but en- 
joined. 

At this supreme hour, if one is not at his 40 winks, as easily 
he may be in a hammock or a chair, as disposition or digestion 
serve, his unhampered thoughts may be busy in any entertain- 
ing direction. If he has had a morning of interesting or ex- 
citing adventures, he may and very likely he will make that 
morning a mirror wherein, with critical eye, he sees himself 
reflected and, while he takes his ease in his inn, leisurely con- 
demns his errors or applauds his successes and fortifies him- 
self with experience for new achievements. A man may make 
"scratches" at salmon fishing, as he does at billiards — not so 
often — and in the long run it will not pay to reckon on count- 
ing that way. 

In all the affairs of human life, experience aptly applied 
brings the cows home, the grist to the mill and the salmon to 
the shore. The great charm and delight of this sport is that 
daily it opens the eyes to this fact more and more. So, like 
prudent virgins, we trim our wits' ends and nourish them with 
the oil of experience and muster and master situations for the 
afternoon. The witching time of a bright day is the Silver 
Doctor's hour. The midgets like that hour, too, and as the 



212 ABRAHAM LANSING 

shadows fall and the birds begin to speed away on resolute 
wing and the salmon to taste the air, the insects come out for 
a frolic also ; but nevertheless on a bright day there is no hour 
like that in which the Silver Doctor rules. 

Well, at luncheon time, that is to say after the luncheon was 
over and we sat placidly on the porch, a great bald eagle came 
fanning down with measuring wing along the bends of the 
opposite shore. Leisurely he came, emerging from beyond 
the turn at the brook, holding himself not much higher than 
our line of vision, if as high ; pushing his huge sidelong 
shadow aslant before him ; peering down into the water for a 
fish ; a partridge at that distance would have sounded like a 
small thunder gust ; but we only knew that this great eagle was 
there because we saw him. His easy movement — deliberate 
but very progressive — had carried him past the camp, uncon- 
scious or regardless of our presence, when the sharp sound of 
"Honey Cooler" awoke the echoes around him. No feather 
flew, but the missile sped so near the bird that his broad wings 
flattened upon his sides and his body dipped headlong towards 
the water ; then gathering himself with quick recoil he rose 
with wonderful energy and greatly accelerated pace and im- 
mediately was lost in the shelter of the woods, among its 
highest tree tops. 

"One day on the Chesapeake," said D. O., "we sat behind 
the rushes in a blind of the St. Domingo Club, C. H. R. and I, 
and watched the movements of a crippled duck upon the 
water and of an eagle hovering over it. The wing of the 
water fowl had been broken and the eagle circled above with 
frequent descents to capture his prey. When he approached 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 213 

the water, the duck disappeared beneath its surface ; and thus 
for some time they mutually lowered themselves, on the ini- 
tiative of the eagle, in their different elements. At length 
like a tired salmon, the water bird yielded to the demands of 
fatigue and for his life could no longer maintain the unequal 
struggle. Then down swooped the bird of liberty and gath- 
ered the spent quarry in his talons and far out of gun shot 
from the shore rose triumphantly upward. The wild duck is 
a hardy and a muscular creature and, whether from his strug- 
gles or the tactics of the eagle, at a mortal height, the lordly 
talons released their grasp, and, revolving head and heels 
through the unresisting air, the wounded bird fell splashing 
on the water with a fatal thump ; with seeming unconcern his 
captor sped away to the shore and ensconced him on the limb 
of a tall tree; then he serenely regarded the struggling form 
until death stretched it lifeless on the bosom of the bay; then 
he sallied forth, and gathered it again, took it back to the 
perch and devoured it." The fish regards the butterfly on the 
stream and the eagle regards the fish and man regards the 
eagle— all innocently to themselves — but with merciless intent; 
push the parallel no further. "Ships are but boards, sailors 
but men. There be land rats and water rats." There is the 
mandrake and the pestilence, the lightning and the tempest, 
the lion and the spear. Nature, infinite in perfection, incom- 
parable in device and adaptation, past comprehension in its 
skill, is not more instinct with the spirit of life than of de- 
struction. 

"I do not rightly know," says Peter, "the Indian name of 
the Eagle, but that fine bird which came so near his death 



214 ABRAHAM LANSING 

before the Camp was a mature and a rare bird. A young eagle 
has no grey or white head or tail, and it is three years after 
they chip the egg before they develop in that way; that eagle 
had a ponderous white head and tail, too. If you had shot him 
you would have seen also that his beak and claws were a 
decided yellow. They have a very rapid flight, those birds, and 
it is astonishing how rapidly they can propel their huge bodies 
over miles of space. They fly higher and nest higher than 
other birds, and they tell me, those who live at the tide ways, 
that this white-headed eagle soars above the osprey or sea gull 
and watches until he captures a fish, then, when at a suitable 
height, he gives chase; the gull drops the fish and the eagle 
secures it before it touches the water and that 's the kind of 
fisherman a bald eagle is. Why they call a bird, whose head 
is so plentifully covered with feathers, bald-headed is a ques- 
tion ; perhaps his grey feathers look bald at a distance ; perhaps 
the eagle does n't mind ; they say that only those whose heads 
are really bald are sensitive about being twitted as bald-headed 
men. I don't know, I 'm sure ; Indians are seldom bald." 



Sunday, July 19. 
To-day we broke camp; among others who came in, the 
Fergusons were of course earliest; Waddell's guardian and 
Philip Petrie, our French tenant at "Daybreak." He loaned 
us his copy of Mowat's agreement with him and we are to 
take a copy and give him a lease for a term, to be determined. 
Called at McAndrew's on our way down to say good bye; 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 215 

were pleasantly received and entertained. Passed Mowat's, 
stopped at Nelson's. Harmony we passed without tarrying; 
no one there and we reached the Club House in the evening. 
D. O. and L. came down in one canoe. "Lay down a layer of 
earth in a box, then a layer of potato parings, then a layer of 
angle-worms, and cover with earth," says Peter, "and so you 
may keep your worms a week or more, and they will be tough 
and hard and lively. And may the Great Spirit preserve you 
for another season's fishing as tough and lively as the other 
creatures of the earth, preserved in parings of potatoes." 



1886 

Saturday, June 12. 
It was 10 minutes to 4 o'clock p. m. when Nelson's scow 
brought us, viz., D. O. and L., Peter, Noel, Barney, Louis and 
Steve, with all our stores and fixings, to the top of Hero Rap- 
ids. Soon after the roof of Camp Albany came in sight and 
we had landed and were at work opening the windows and the 
barrels and boxes. We made few stops on the way; indeed 
only two — at Nelson's old house and at Dee Side. At the 
latter place the men boiled the kettle, and Mrs. Nelson gave 
us luncheon. They have put up just above Dee Side a new 
government hatching house. D. O. and L. walked over to 



216 ABRAHAM LANSING 

look at it and saw the salmon fry in troughs, ready for dis- 
tribution. Our eyes rested on myriads screening themselves 
in the shadows of the clean and narrow troughs. Bright run- 
ning water from the hills, entering at the head of the house, 
laved them copiously and if liveliness is a criterion by which 
we may judge, their artificial procreation was no disadvantage 
to them. The floods had again descended on the house of 
McAndrew, and it had fallen, but the indomitable heart of 
McAndrew beats undismayed. 

Mild runs the autumn Ristigouche ; 

Meek are the dimples on its limpid waters, 

And all its tuneful voice on a minor key ; 

There is a festive twinkle in a gypsy's eye ; 

There is a frown of verdant mountains, 

And a threat in peaceful space, 

Boding perfidy in Nature's smiling moods. 

Sensuous the spring, 

Fecund the summer, 

Teeming the autumn depths, 

Nuptial noontime ; Pan bates a breath and ponders ; 

But winter creeps along, 

As shadows in the afternoon 

Steal on to twilight and to gloom ; 

Enfeebled Nature, spent with the riot pace, 

Grows sere of locks and thin ; 

Idly the stubborn branches lash at the winds. 

Rend their blighting leaves, 

And freight the air with frantic protest. 

Vainly the forest wails in pitiful entreaty : 

Pallor sits upon the features, 

Films glaze the eyes, 

Palsy spreads through all the limbs 

And bodv of the earth, 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 217 

And stills its vital currents. 

Sharp needles ply with icy thread 

Upon the surface of the shrunken stream, 

And fit its winter garb. 

Hapless it lies, 

With voice restrained, 

And all along its winding way, 

From shore to shore, 

Held hand and foot 

In crystal gyves and manacles, 

Wrought as cleverly 

As spiders spin their webs, 

Or handicraftmen plait 

The meshes of their lace ; 

As swiftly as the shuttle 

Moves upon the loom ; 

As silently as skillful fingers 

Knit in silken floss, or braid in odorous hair, 

And strong, as if 

In silent smithy 

Working unseen, 

At fireless forge, 

On noiseless anvil, 

Some Vulcan of the cold 

Had welded them. 

Above the jagged shoulders 

Of the evening hills, 

Purples with bated breath 

The western glow 

Upon the vanquished scene ; 

Cyprine cedars fold their arms 

'Neath sombre brows ; 

Sacerdotal firs and pines, 

From their dense and solemn green, 

Hold out their wrinkled cones 

Like urns, bleeding at their pores, 



218 ABRAHAM LANSING 

And offer incense on the piercing air ; 

And birch and poplar, 

White in priestlike vestments, 

And ash and beech and maple, 

Stark, reverent and grim, 

Stand priests and mourners 

At funeral rites. 

The summer is the spring's glad child, 

Not so the autumn of the summer, 

Or winter of the fall. 

Autumn is no new birth 

But waning life in summer's self, 

And winter is the summer's death of all. 

And so the lusty summer, 

Outcome of every purpose of the year, 

Its climax, full fruition, and its best result, 

Fresh from memories 

Of golden light, 

And scented breeze, 

And waving bloom, 

And bowing fruit, 

Is laid, with solemn rights 

And requiem, at rest. 

Do they say that keys unlock 

The chains of winter in the spring? 

I tell you Amor vine it ; 

That the spirit which ere long 

Will burst in russet buds 

Upon the trees, 

And call in wild birds' amorous songs 

Among the branches, 

Mantle the earth with tender green, and 

Paint with pensive blue 

The violet's lid, 

And make the wild rose blush 

Before the streamlet, 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 219 

And all the air, seductive and voluptuous 
With the scent of blossoms 
And the thrill of warbling melody 
And warmth of balmy breeze. 

A bright day — a bright Ristigouche day; a clear river; no 
bugs and no logs. Between us we had five handsome salmon 
in camp by even fall, not long out of the briny deep. L. took 
three— 27, 24 and 14 pounds. D. O. took two — 25 and 23^ 
pounds. 



Tuesday, June 15. 
Another bright glorious day and we went a fishing. In the 
morning D. O. took two, 22^ and 23^ pounds. L. took two 
— 23^2 and 20^ pounds. In the afternoon D. O. took two 
more— 22 and 28^ pounds. And L. took two more — 26 and 
26 pounds. 

Wednesday, June 16. 
Lowering in the early morning; after 10 a. m. settled rain, 
and the logs running. In the morning D. O. took a fish 
weighing 22^ pounds. L. took two, weighing 22 and 26^ 
pounds. In the afternoon D. O. took another weighing 23^ 
pounds ; and L. took one weighing 24 pounds. 



Friday, June 25. 
This was a cloudy day with showers. L. fished the camp 
pool early in the morning without result. McA. in his Prin- 



220 ABRAHAM LANSING 

cess pool opposite — no results. Quite on toward luncheon 
time, L. went down to Hero Rapids and killed the first fish 
ever taken by us in that pool. He took three and missed one 
good fish, which came up on the first drop. The weight of 
those taken — 24^, 27^/2 and eight pounds. In the afternoon, 
L. fished Hero Rapids again and killed two more. Weight 
28^ and 20 pounds. D. O. also took two fish to-day in his 
pools (O. pools) — weights 29 and 13 pounds. 



Saturday, June 26. 
McAlister and Mowat came up in Mowat's dugout yesterday 
(Friday) p. m. and passed last night with us. They went 
down before noon to-day. McAlister went up in the morning 
with Mowat to Olcott's Pools and hooked a fish which he did 
not get. D. O. and L. did not fish. 

Saturday, July 3. 
L. scored one fish in the morning, avoirdupois 24^2 pounds. 
Stearns came down from Chamberlain Shoals in the after- 
noon and had luncheon with us. D. O. spied a ground hog at 
the ice house, near the door, as we sat on the porch, and sent 
a bullet through him from "Honey Cooler." He proved to be 
a male in excellent condition and fat. D. O. directed Barney, 
who is not long in ascertaining the reason for a rifle shot, or 
of any other noticeable fact or occurrence either, to have him 
carefully dressed for use to-morrow. Mrs. Dugald Ferguson 
sent us a chicken — so called — also in the evening. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 221 

Now there are hawks and foxes and weasels and mink and 
the little black and white animal, which Larry used to caution 
us was best secured in a barrel ; and there are crows, too, 
which relish young chickens and heaven knows what beside, to 
prey on poultry here and the hens stray away and hide their 
nests in the woods and heggs is heggs up here and the winter 
is long and provisions are scarce and there is no money to re- 
stock the poultry yard in the spring and when Madame Fergu- 
son sent us one of her fowls, she sent us what she did not hold 
for sale, and would have declined to sell, upon almost any 
offer. None of the farmers here, the Fergusons and the Manns 
and the Horns and the Mileses and the Le Fergies, keep their 
poultry for sale, but for their eggs, which, with all other farm 
produce and stock, such as it is, are for sale and in market. 
So the gift of a fowl is no mean matter, whether it be old or 
young, and was a very suitable concession, on the Ristigouche 
standard, to the importance of the Fourth of July in the 
world's history, and a very marked evidence of consideration 
for those who received it. It was Saturday afternoon any- 
way, and Stearns found it pleasant to stay and we found it 
agreeable to have him and so we went not out to fish any more 
this week. 

Sunday, July 4. 

We began the day with our usual salute of 13 shots. And 

we gave the men a Fourth of July dinner, i. e., we provided 

them with materials for it, and they did not refuse to honor 

the day or stint their potation except by the size of the turn- 



222 ABRAHAM LANSING 

bier and a certain sense of decorum, always present in their 
minds, and strained most severely under such a temptation. 
D. O. made a ground-hog stew and it was excellent, for din- 
ner, which we had late, and as a second course, Mrs. Fergu- 
son's chicken fricasseed was not bad. In the afternoon we 
made a call at McAndrew's. And we honored the day with 
smoke and cordials, after dinner, and then laid down upon 
our bough beds for the night — what was left of it — and we 
slept as soundly, no doubt, as if we had marched in a proces- 
sion with a musket or a banner, or delivered an oration under 
the shadows of the Capitol. And so ended our seventh Fourth 
on the River Ristigouche, in smoke and sleep, and how else 
ought it? 



Wednesday, July 7. 

Our lines uncast in any place lay snug upon the shelf all 
day, unwet. Mist obscured the dawn; heat and showers, sun 
and clouds diversified the morning and settled rain wound up 
the evening. We had appointed a christening and made a 
festival and all Isle Inverburne's household and all the red 
men of its camps came to bear witness. They came at noon 
—as asked — but none too late for our preparations. At once 
the clouds broke away and gave a glimpse of the sun and all 
of us descended to the beach. 

In front the ladies and gentlemen ; down stream a few paces, 
and to the rear, a file of Indians, Inverburne's and Albany's, 
decorously drawn up in regular and double row. Over the 
bank above through the foliage appeared the meagre face and 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 223 

dark eyes of Louis, prone on the ground, and hors de combat, 
from the cut upon his knee. The canoes, drawn up at the 
water's edge ; around all nature, its river, woods and perfumes 
and its rising mists; on high were shifting skies of grey and 
blue and bursts of fitful sunlight. The breeze made not a 
whisper; the birds had sung their matins out and were in their 
noontime hammocks. The earth and air were listening with 
pensive curiosity and the mild tumult of the river warned 
against intrusion. "Proceed," they said, "we are all attention. 
Ring up your curtain, have off your faces and begin." 

What an occasion is a christening — a canoe, a yacht, an 
infant; shall we not lift it into the sphere of individuality and 
a name? Set out the little lighted candle from under a bushel, 
upon its distinctive candlestick; array it bravely for the cere- 
monial and proffer it with aspiring hope and earnest belief. 
Who is there to gainsay or estimate its efficacy ? Yet up and 
down upon the river are canoes and canoes, birch canoes and 
log canoes, nameless as the pebbles on the beach, or the sticks 
of timber in a drive — unregenerate children of the forest, do- 
ing their essential part in the economy of the stream, without 
the grace of christening. 

Ah, Gideon Le Fergie, crank of the dice box and the bottle, 
outlaw almost in this land of freebooting, drifter, poacher and 
what not else, thy "Lovely Sea boat," among all the craft big 
and little on the water, is now the only conception to the 
dignity of a name, since "Great Caesar's Ghost" and Peter's 
"Mary Han" went wailing on the "shining shore!" And a 
christening is for the future— for the new, the untried, the 
promising; for youth and for hope; the garlands are garlands 



224 ABRAHAM LANSING 

of hope; the ceremonies the earnest and tokens of promise. 
Quid rides? The young Homer, the young Hercules, the 
young Lawgiver of the Bullrushes, is he not a possibility of 
every age, aye of every generation ? 

Shall there be even song and no reveille? Requiem and 
vespers and no matins ? Fasts and tenebrae and no Christmas ? 
Funeral baked meats and no frankincense and myrrh ? Night- 
ingale and no chanticleer? Shall we grieve with the tragedies 
of November and have no songs for the beauties, the fra- 
grance and the promise of May? And what does it signify 
that this blighted leaf is the same which pushed through the 
bark with abundant life and promise and burst open the brown 
bud to reach the light of spring? What does it signify that 
November is not less a certainty than May ? 



Thursday, July 8. 
Well, this was the day after. We took no fish at all this 
morning. The river ran and the birds sang and the day 
dawned and the morning waned and the shadows lengthened. 
Perhaps the heat was the trouble ; be that as it may, we killed 
no fish until afternoon. Then D. O. brought in a 20^ -pound 
and L. an eight-pound one and we rested from our labors. 



Friday, July 9. 
They say the spring freshet this year has had no parallel in 
the world's history. They all agree on that; the Fergusons, 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 225 

great and small, male and female, and the Horns, father and 
sons and mother, and the Mileses, and Nelson and old Le Fer- 
gie and the rest, and Peter and the Indians shake their heads 
significantly. It is a part of the traditions now of the river, 
how the comely dwelling of Mc Andrew, our neighbor, stayed 
and anchored and battlemented around about with the sturdi- 
est posts and timbers which the forest yields, in the dead of a 
tremendous night, burst its moorings, rose to the summit of 
the swelling flood and rode, with all its freight of stores and 
furniture, above the Whales and the Chain of Rocks, down, 
down with the tumult and the roar to be stranded at Brandy 
Brook. Le Fergie cast it a midnight benediction ; Ferguson 
peered grimly out at the novel sight; the Horns assembled to 
gaze in mute astonishment as it went by, and Miles. But at 
Brandy Brook, resting like a giant drunk with new wine, 
lashed and buffeted by the remorseless rush and torrent and 
grinding up and down upon the rocks, it shook its unwilling 
shoulders as if chilled to the marrow with the cold and yield- 
ing up the ghost with a wail from every timber and at every 
joint was torn limb from limb in the insatiable flood. 

To have approached that stranded and reeling house, across 
the ice-blocked river, would have been a feat of no small peril. 
They do say that Miles's house was better furnished after the 
freshet than before and that mysterious shapes went back and 
forth about the doomed pavilion on that memorable night. 
But who can know? The fearful avalanche of water left no 
reckoning of the flotsam that went out to sea in its savage tide, 
or the jetsam that crawled along the river's bottom in the same 
direction. And there were things to reckon and remember 



226 ABRAHAM LANSING 

and lament. The house, the second of its kind, not quite as 
large as that which succumbed in the spring freshet of the 
year before, but no mean affair for the wilderness; the com- 
forts, conveniences, and luxuries of household economy, which 
it contained, brought for the long summer vacation of '85, and 
in anticipation of successive vacations like it; the red elbow 
chairs that knew so well the shady parts of the porch at all 
hours and the coolness and comfort of the twilight; the old 
fire dogs on the hearth in the bright dining-room chimney cor- 
ner, through which the fire looked with a merry light when 
the sun had gone and the night air chilled the river's canyon, 
and over which the fragrance of the choicest Havanas of the 
Travellers' Club mingled with fumes of the best hot Scotch, 
and with the smoke of the burning logs, on their way up into 
the outer air ; in which the flames had painted so many pictures 
of a white banquet table and a joyous company and of other 
pictures on the walls about them; of the salmon, life-sized, 
which had tipped the scales at better than 42 pounds, painted 
to life, — an ugly brute, but a big one, and a rare one; and of 
tracings and photographs brought there and taken there and 
painted there and of tasteful decorations which made the in- 
terior of that room so engaging, so homelike and so hospitable. 
That excellent kitchen stove, but a season old, which cooked 
the crimped salmon, not an hour out of the stream, after the 
method of the Laird O'Cakes, and its entire baterie de cuisine. 
A case or so of the best "Old Islay," no doubt ripening in the 
frost, to add to the charms and pleasures of that hospitality. 
Down they went, as if it had cost no pains and money to bring 
them there, preceded by the trim flag-staff, which had floated 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 227 

the "Meteor flag of England" in proud announcement of the 
allegiance and the loyalty of the household on festal days and 
thrown out its folds in welcome on the return of its members 
and guests. 

Rocks and roots and forest trees, hill-sides of gravelly 
earth, are common food for the hungry river when it wakes 
from its winter's sleep to take its spring breakfast. It was a 
dainty morsel to grind in its icy teeth and roll under its licker- 
ish tongue and in its ravenous jaws, this comfortable and 
handsome villa and its choice contents. And they say that 
the river rent the air with roars of savage glee at the happy 
chance. It jammed the ice blocks across the channel at the 
Chain of Rocks, as in driving times it jams the logs, and piled 
them up in greatest confusion and strength, until the rushing 
waters were hurled back upon themselves and combatted in 
their rebound their own descending current. The war of the 
contest aroused the frightened echoes, the moon grew paler 
in the winter's sky and the hill-sides trembled with the terrific 
struggle. A block of ice on the porch of Camp Albany after- 
wards marked the height of the angry waters which had 
surged back from the dam below. 

Last summer's floods must be memorable in the history of 
summer floods in the Ristigouche. Then they said — the old 
inhabitants — it had no precedent in any summer whereunto 
their memory ran back. Well, that flood raised the water to 
the foot of the stairs by which we ascend our bank. It was a 
rushing, resistless, ungovernable, overwhelming torrent. Now 
raise it 20 feet. What then? Could anyone determine its 
avoirdupois or measure its vital force; could anchorage hold 



228 ABRAHAM LANSING 

it back or stay its power? Not such as it met at Inverburne 
Island, surely. Of course the house yielded; torn up by the 
roots at the first onset, it was lifted to the surface and awaited 
the yielding of the dam before the gathering forces to be 
swept away. Of course it went. The oldest inhabitants, 
when the summer birds were singing and the summer stream 
smiled pleasantly and the flowers were growing on the beach 
and banks and the cheveaux de fries alongside the merry 
water defied its latent powers, the oldest inhabitants then said 
it would go, and it did. 

On dit, that last winter's snows were immense; that the 
thaw came suddenly and late ; that it continued with little 
check and rapid effect; and that these declivities ran rivulets 
of liquefied snow from Matapedia to the Kedgwick, something 
like continuous waterfalls pouring down into the common val- 
ley from marble sides, opposite each other. These stiff gales 
which rush wildly through here so frequently in summer are 
doubtless meagre suggestions of the boreal blasts which ac- 
company the dying winter. When the main strength of the 
accumulating waters lifted the strong ice from its mooring, 
snapping it with a sound like a rapid fusillade of musketry, 
and rolled its blocks together with a noise like the roar of sup- 
plemental artillery, it may well be that at times the winds 
played a part in these ceremonies, which cleared out the river 
for the salmon of '86, and wound up the long winter, and with 
no uncertain sound either. Some sort of dirge usually empha- 
sizes disaster, be it the wail of the wind or the wolves, the peal 
of the thunder or the voice of the multitude. 

At the stillest hour of the stillest dav of summer or in au- 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 229 

tumn, there is always what seems an audible voice of the 
forest; at all events the hum of insect life and the invariable 
rush of the river (imperceptible, if familiar and unregarded) ; 
and there is expectancy of song of bird, or leap of salmon, or 
slide of rock or earth, or sound of pole or paddle; but what 
sounds are there when the winds are stilled of a day in the 
dead of winter; when these white cliffs glisten in their jeweled 
crust through the naked trunks and boughs over the sheeted 
and smothered river, and silence only is heard, and no song 
of bird or insect, or voice of man or sound of beast, breaks the 
frozen atmosphere, and nature sleeps the rigid icy sleep of 
50 degrees below zero? Are there the tickings of the shrink- 
ing fibers in the trees, the snapping of the ice, as it solidifies 
and intensifies in the cold ? We must ask Peter. It is said that 
the ice froze solid to the river bottom in deep places — but these 
inhabitants, old and new, speak sometimes with more emphasis 
than exactitude. Peter knows — what does n't he know?— that 
ice at its best never makes from river water more than 28 
inches. D. O. killed three fish to-day; in the morning, eight 
and 22 pounds; in the afternoon, 223/2 pounds. And L., it 
being Friday, killed nothing. 



Saturday, July 10. 
We went out this morning and D. O. killed a fish, in weight 
20 pounds. But the flush of the season is past, and there is a 
suppressed opinion, or seems to be, on all sides. These scenes 
do not pall, but the ostensible purpose of our visits is to kill. 
Rumors up and down the river that there is a fresh run ex- 



230 ABRAHAM LANSING 

pected, that a rise of water must certainly fill the pools with 
new fish, lose after a time their elasticity and begin to pop 
like roast chestnuts in ears trained by years' experience. If 
experience does not show that the early season is the only true 
season of all the salmon year, then we have not had experi- 
ence. And to-day being Saturday, L. killed no fish. 



Sunday, July n. 
And we went up to the jungle and we sat and smoked off 
the mosquitoes and we came in for luncheon and McAndrew 
called. And we determined to fold our tents and make our 
exit to-morrow. 

Monday, July 12. 
A. L. went out early to get a fish if he could, and could n't, 
being Monday, and he came in soon and things were very 
much astir at Camp. And there was a dense blue-grey smoke 
rising in the morning sunlight from the beach. D. O. had 
laid the bough beds on a funeral pyre there and was commit- 
ting them to flames and forever. And a pretty mess they were 
and they made such a smoke as only matted hemlock boughs, 
and, as it turned out, fermented, can make. And so after all 
these years we have learned something this year about bough 
beds, it seems. Ah, we must be getting old or luxurious. 
Adieu, traditions of youth and its prejudices, if not its enthu- 
siasm ! Those boughs had been piled up and up, not renewed, 
time and time over, and still our aching thighs were not ap- 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 231 

peased. Thinner beds might have served us years ago; now 
we must have springs and mattresses. What next? What 
next ? What next ? 

Old Larry Vicaire 

Was an Indian rare, 
Though his visage was seamed 

And silvered his hair. 
Along the bright river 

On runway and rill, 
The footfall of Larry 

Forever is still. 
But in all this wild forest 

Where, where is the spot, 
In open or thicket, 

That knew Larry not ? 
Twain rapid hacks 

From the blade of his axe 
In the bark, show the mark 

Of his moccasin tracks. 
By covert, defile, 

And devious aisle, 
Grim bruin's repair 

And Lucivie's lair, 
You may still see the blazings 

Of Larry Vicaire. 

And we broke camp and we floated and paddled in one 
canoe down stream to Matapedia, and en route we dropped in 
at Inverburne Island and stopped at Ferguson's, etc. At Har- 
mony we found Sage and Mrs. Sage and Miss Susie and we 
ate there the best home-made cake ever eaten on the river and 
we tarried there until the films began to grow over the eyes of 
day and so were off for home. 



232 ABRAHAM LANSING 



1887 

Saturday, June 11. 

It was about 7 this morning when we boarded Nelson's 
scow, loaded over night with our stores, and it was after 4 
p. m. when we spied the roof of Camp Albany. There were 
three of us, C. H. R., D. O. and A. L. 

It was a fine day at Montreal — it always is when we tarry 
there a day en route. We were driven to the top of the moun- 
tain after our purchases, took a look through the telescope 
there, through the bright rich atmosphere, at the foaming 
waters of Le Chien Rapids, fell accidentally into La Langue 
Frangais, descended to our dinner at the Windsor, at which 
we had some very good shad from the St. Lawrence, stowed 
ourselves in the Intercolonial sleeping car with a multitude 
of traps, and awoke between 7 and 8 next morning at 
Point Levi, to see once more the citadel and the Heights of 
Abraham at Quebec opposite. And to-night we sleep upon 
bedsteads of iron, on mattresses under white sheets; the bed- 
steads and beds came on as freight from Montreal to Mata- 
pedia and were purchased weeks ago by mail order from D. O. 
at Montreal. 

Here are Peter Soque and Noel Vicaire and Barney Barn- 
aby and Tom, his nephew; Tom is the bow of D. O.'s canoe 
this year, for poor Louis Machir died last winter. R. has also 
two Indians, young fellows, one Tom, if not two, somebody. 
And there is Peter, our new cook, a tall, well-built fellow, with 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 233 

a pleasant face, and if he is as good at cooking as he is good 
looking, we shall not have to complain of our fare. 

R. has climbed the heights of Mont Blanc ; explored the gla- 
ciers of Switzerland; tramped over its passes and sailed its 
lakes ; roamed the fair fields and the vineyards of France and 
the Rhine ; bivouacked with the army in the South ; basked in 
the light and air and water of Italy; breathed the freshness of 
the Adirondack hills; viewed the landscape from the summit 
of Marcy, where all but the tops of the mountains look like 
the sea ; done auld lang syne the Scotch and Irish and English 
Lakes; rounded the Point of Judith; taught the echoes at 
Bugle Cove the sound of his rifle; breasted the waves of the 
Moose ; stopped the flight of many a canvas back on the Chesa- 
peake and of bob white among the blue hills of Jersey and in 
the magnolian woods ; been over the Rockies and on the moors 
of Maryland; everywhere almost beside, but had never seen 
the Ristigouche. 



Sunday, June 12. 
What a mess, what a day of rest to be sure! By nightfall 
things are better. The logs are piled on the old hearth and 
the fire blazes and the kettle boils on the crane and the lock- 
ers are filled full and the room is aglow with the light of the 
Rochester lamp, and the drawn curtains send a warm lustre 
from their ruddy folds up among the rafters and the shadows 
overhead. A fair meal — for pork and eggs, with hot fried 
potatoes, make a fair meal— made a cigar enjoyable, and the 



234 ABRAHAM LANSING 

wine is good and the cordial and the cheese and the biscuit and 
the stories were good — most of them. And outside is the old 
mysterious silence of the hills, the old brightness of the stars 
and weirdness of the woods and steady rush of the river and 
deep darkness and music of the toads and blaze of the Indian 
campfire outlining against the night their rustic dwelling and 
sending a gleam upon the foliage just bursting into new life 
on the hillsides behind them. The Indians do not snore ; they 
are too near Camp and too decorous for that ; the conversation 
of their shanty is in suppressed voices ; there is no loud laugh- 
ter, no coarse guffaw. And so, with the old memories pervad- 
ing and the old scenes about us and the old spirit with us, we 
wore out the evening, and went, like babes in the woods, to 
sleep. 



Monday, June 13. 
The early morning opened with clouds; at 10 a. m. there 
had been showers and after 10 there was rain. Thermometer 
marked 60 at 6.30 a. m. The first fish of the season came out 
of the camp pool at the slide. D. O. took him this morning 
and he weighed 25^2 pounds and he was a female fish. And 
L. got nothing. So we had salmon for our dinner. 



Tuesday, June 14. 
For those who have a fondness for wood life, this is pretty 
near perfection and for any one who could enjoy a trip from 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 235 

Blue Mountain Lake to the Saranacs, as we did together, it 
could not fail to have many charms. I would like, too, that 
you should see it when the v/oods are fresh and green, as they 
are now, with the brightness of June, which is about what the 
middle of May is at home, and the river runs in full volume 
and all the birds are jubilant with the honeymoon song. It is 
delightful here this year and we are all en rapport with our 
surroundings. 

I cannot but think that you would enjoy the trip up here as 
much as I do. The scenery about Lake Champlain is the finest 
in New York State and Montreal is as distinctly different from 
our own cities as if it were over the seas; and then there is 
Quebec and its suburbs, Montmorenci Falls and Beaufort, and 
beyond it is the trip through the provinces of Quebec and New 
Brunswick; and still beyond is Camp Albany, and, I think, a 
most delightful trip up the river. 



Wednesday, June 15. 

Phair, Fish Commissioner of New Brunswick, came in on 
his way up stream at luncheon time, but had already lunched. 
Yesterday Messrs. Bartlett, Fairbanks and Bliss, on their way 
to the Club fishing at Chamberlain Shoals and above, came in. 

On the top of Santa Claus opposite, the very top, sat a white 
object so still and motionless that it seemed a part of the tree 
at first; a glass discovered it to be a hawk. Standing on the 
porch, R. sighted "Honey Cooler" at him and picked him off. 
Tom brought him in wounded and fierce, a grey hawk with 



236 ABRAHAM LANSING 

yellow talons and bill and bright grey eyes, a hardy, muscular 
bird, small in size and so grey in plumage as to look white at 
a distance— a hawk all over. Some drops of ammonia in his 
throat ended his existence. Several of these hawks collected 
on the opposite beach, perching on the trees by the river's 
beach and watching there motionless, watching or sleeping. 
D. O. from our beach below cut the tail from another with a 
rifle ball sent to the opposite shore and brought the tail away 
as neatly clipped as if done by shears ; the bird flew off without 
a rudder. No fish to-day. 



Friday, June ij. 
McAndrew came up river, and took possession of his house. 
This year he has a portable house, built, of course, last sum- 
mer, and to run out of the wet on runners ; a plan which seems 
successful. When the snow falls, they ride it into the woods 
on sleighs and after the spring freshet they ride it back again. 
A patent, portable, peripatetic domicile, made to put up and 
take down and pack away and to ride and roam at will ; but 
the old houses were features in the landscape, in harmony with 
it; this is almost as bad as Haversham's house below, before 
Captain Sweny got hold of it and made it the most picturesque 
on the river of all the larger houses. It was occupied last sum- 
mer, but now looks more like the wart it is on the face of a 
handsome landscape than then. The ladies are certain to 
amend this and there is reason to think it too slight for the 
midsummer sun which beats down on that unsheltered island. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 237 

McAndrew says they never have flies there on the island, and 
they do hardly ever; but they have smudges there sometimes, 
most times. 



Saturday, June 18. 
The smoke house is in good order and the smoke is up and 
our surplus fish go in there. And we blamed the raging seas, 
and watched with watery eyes far into the night, and the re- 
flector broke at first trial. 



Sunday, June 19. 
About 10 we had our breakfast. At luncheon we had Cap- 
tain and Mrs. Sweny and others, and it was a merry party. 
There were dinner-table talk and stories and the roof fairly 
echoed with merriment. Stearns and Sanderson called also 
during the luncheon, and awaited on the porch, declining to 
join us at table. Higginson and others also called during the 
day. We had a chowder, too, which R. made, and it came to a 
hungry market, the basis whereof was fresh Ristigouche trout 
and the other compoundings whereof are one of those things 
which no one ever can find out. And we drank our coffee on 
the porch and smoked there, and when the day had well ad- 
vanced toward its later hours, our guests had floated off down 
stream, had received our salutes, and were out of sight. It 
was very nice of Mrs. Sweny to send us word last week in 
good season that they would come up on Sunday, and we were 
readv to receive them, or had time to be. 



238 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Monday, June 20. 
In the morning we captured one fish. He came out of the 
camp pool at the slide. L. killed him and he weighed 25^ 
pounds. And that was all the day's sport yielded in fish. 
Trout, of course, are plenty. 



Tuesday, June 2 1 . 
L. fished the camp pool again this morning and brought in 
one fish weighing 23 pounds. In the afternoon he took an- 
other from the camp pool, weighing 23 pounds, and one from 
the O. pool weighing 27 pounds. Raymond went out. 



June 23. 
C. H. R. (Charles H. Raymond) declares that this camp 
more than realizes his most brilliant expectations and, though 
he is an old woodsman, that it and its surroundings and em- 
ployments are in all respects unequalled in his experiences ; and 
that he enjoyed himself here on his visit of ten days I am very 
certain, and he was sorry to be compelled to leave. 



June 24. 
Have just heard of the death of the grand old Dr. Hopkins. 
Through the young men educated under his instruction at 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 239 

Williams College, he has exerted a wise and wholesome influ- 
ence upon the world. He was one of the most gifted men of 
his time and held the admiration, esteem and love of all 
who for fifty years past have received instruction at Williams. 
He was imbued with the most profound philosophy, and was 
filled with the beautiful, the poetic and the true. He had a 
vivid imagination, subjected always to the control of an under- 
standing almost infallible. Joy and cheerfulness pervaded his 
life, as "ether pervades the universe," and humor was his hand- 
maiden to do his bidding, to point a moral, or adorn a tale. 
He died at the age of eighty-five, filled with the freshness of 
youth, and his memory will be green and delightful as the 
brightness and sweetness of these Canadian woods. 

Sir John McDonald and lady passed up stream to-day in a 
scow. They stayed last night a mile below us. It is quite 
possible they intended to pass the night at Camp Albany, but 
there was some little accident which may have prevented. 
They would certainly have been much more comfortable with 
us than in the house they occupied and their ill-conditioned 
scow. 

D. O. says he never saw the foliage here so fresh and bright 
as this year, and that nowhere else in his experience has he 
known foliage so fresh and bright as here. 



Monday, July 4. 
Salute in the early morning. L. took a fish in the O. pools 
weighing 13^ pounds. 



>40 ABRAHAM LANSING 



1888 



Windsor Hotel, Montreal, June 14. 
Reached here about a quarter to nine this morning, and 
found D. O. and C. H. R. awaiting breakfast for me. To-day 
we have been making purchases, and about 10 p. m. will leave 
for Point Levi, opposite Quebec. 



Friday, June 15. 

Reached Point Levi on time; breakfasted at the Victoria, 
where we saw Tom Hyer and the rest of the familiar faces 
attendant at the ceremony which is there called breakfast and 
paid for as such. Our old friend, the conductor on the Grand 
Trunk, was there this morning, as he had been for years and 
years of mornings without an intermission before. At Trois 
Pistoles we dined and in the evening were at Matapedia and 
the Club House. Mr. Thompson, with a special car from the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, followed respectfully in the wake of 
our train and he and his ladies, of course, reached the depot 
in the same relative situation to us. They were carefully 
switched onto a side track, there to make an abode, and we 
wended our way among the throng of gazing Indians to our 
luggage and thence to the hospitable home of the Ristigouche 
Club. 

Mr. Catlin is dangerously ill at the Club House with gout. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 241 

At table were Bartlett, General Penfold, Goelet, St. Gaudens. 
White; Mr. Thompson with ladies at another table. Heard 
here of the death of "Unser Fritz," the German Emperor, 
by telegraph to some members of the Club and went to bed 
seasonably. 



Saturday, June 16. 

Nelson loaded our trunks and impedimenta on his scow last 
night and we made a start for Camp at 6^2 o'clock precisely, 
half an hour later than the time assigned, as breakfast was 
not prompt. Robert Goelet came with us on the scow as far 
as Waterfalls, where he is to look at a piece of property with 
fishing rights, if not fishing, attached. Mowat has a hand in 
all land transfers on the river first or last and Mowat owns or 
controls the strip. 

At Camp Upsalquitch, Captain and Mrs. Sweny came out 
in a boat to see us and rode a way with us and said they would 
come up and see us in Camp. And Harry Sweny went up to his 
fishing, where he pushed off and before we went out of sight 
we saw him land a salmon. The day was cloudy without rain ; 
the men boiled the kettle and we had some luncheon on the 
scow. Dugald Ferguson's daughter, married and living in 
Bangor, Maine, returning for a visit home with two children, 
after a four years' absence, had come aboard before we 
reached Dee Side. D. O. and L. paid their respects to Mrs. 
Nelson. Near Harmony we passed Florence handling a 
salmon. At his camp at Grog Island, Father Pratt, from the 



242 ABRAHAM LANSING 

shore where he came in from fishing when he saw us, said he 
had directions to signal Florence by three rifle shots when we 
came by, but we could not stop. At Waterfalls, Goelet left 
us and found his companions, St. Gaudens and White, await- 
ing him. At Ferguson's we took on our camp equipage as 
usual and soon after Hero Rapids came in sight and we landed 
at Camp Albany a trifle before 4 p. m. Found all in good 
plight and our kitchen built; got our stores up; had brought 
up a kitchen stove which Nelson bought for us; got up the 
stove; had the beds put up; the large box opened and stored 
away in the kitchen storehouse; had a rude dinner, a fire on 
the hearth and went to bed under mosquito bars — a necessary 
precaution, as the insects, mosquitoes, are here in unusual 
force. 

Had a conversation at Matapedia yesterday with McAlister, 
for whom we had telegraphed about the Ferguson purchases, 
and directed him to go down to Quebec and close the matter 
and accede to the government's terms of two dollars per acre, 
rather than lose the property, but to drive the best bargain 
possible. 



Sunday, June 17. 
And plenty to do. Thermometer at 5 a. m. about 53. We 
sat after dinner last evening on the porch. Goelet and White 
and St. Gaudens came to call in the morning. Goelet found 
that Mowat had title to only one lot at Waterfalls and gave 
up the purchase for the present, as he desired more, the fishing 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 243 

on one lot being- of little value. Mr. and Mrs. Horn and 
James, their son, paid us a visit and a good long one ; we could 
not be excessive in our attentions, but they moved on at last 
to visit Mr. McAndrew at Toad Brook. 

Mr. McAndrew is in his new house at the brook; it com- 
mands a fine stretch of river up and down. Later in the day 
McA. called. Stearns from Chamberlain Shoals was here at 
the same time. We were finishing luncheon when McA. came 
in and had quite a chat on the porch. Stearns was in bad 
plight about his stores having failed to come on and was down 
looking for supplies, which he got at Le Fergie's. He 
(Stearns) lunched with us and in the afternoon went back to 
Chamberlain Shoals, where he is alone. Dinner cooked on 
stove in kitchen and we had a fine trout which Noel captured 
over night in the net. He weighed nearly four pounds. 



Monday, June 18. 
Day bright. Thermometer at 5 a. m. about 53. O. fished 
O. pools ; L. fished Camp and Princess pools. 



Monday, June 25. 
The dinner yesterday which was to have been at 6.30 p. m. 
came off an hour earlier, as the guests reached here about 3 
p. m. instead of 6, as expected. Only Florence and Heck- 
scher came, and the dinner was in all respects good and Peter 
did admirably. There was not a hitch in it "from the egg to 



244 ABRAHAM LANSING 

the apple" ; and at 8 o'clock our guests went home, floating 
clown in their canoes. 

The foliage is green and rich; the leaves have not yet 
reached their full summer size and will not for two or three 
weeks yet. The birds sent up a chorus of welcome for us 
along the banks as we came up the river. They shouted out 
"sweet weather" and "very convenient" and "kidgewick," 
with emphasis on the last syllable. Chickerderleguth screamed 
back and forth before us from side to side. Wit- wit-wit went 
along the course of the river and the familiar high and plain- 
tive note of the peabody came "over the hills and far away" 
and from the branches almost within our reach. The moun- 
tain ash has just put forth its white blossoms and the squaw- 
slipper is in full bloom. Two pitchers were filled with them 
yesterday for our dinner and our visitors took them down 
stream with them. 

A fire occurred here about three weeks ago, starting from 
Le Fergie's, the house just above Ferguson's, and spread 
through the woods on the hills below us on the opposite banks. 
An opportune shower put it out just before it reached our line 
of vision, as we look down the stream from the camp piazza. 
Had it spread further, it would have scarred and disfigured the 
steep hills opposite and consumed Mr. McAndrew's new house 
and Camp Albany, too, most likely, as its dry materials could 
hardly have stood out against the intense heat which it would 
have sent across the stream with the sparks. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 245 



1889 

Montreal, May 30. 

We reached Montreal at about 10.45 p - M - ^ ast n ig nt > the 
train being as usual a little late. The ride was not an 
unpleasant one, as the landscape is fresh and bright and the 
scenery, particularly along Lake Champlain, very beautiful. 
To-night we leave about 9 p. m. for Point Levi; to-morrow 
night we will D. V. pass at Matapedia and reach camp on 
Saturday evening. To-day we called on Mrs. Barnard, who 
was glad to see us. 



June 6. 
We reached here Saturday afternoon at 4 o'clock. The 
day was cool and cloudy. We took our luncheon at Dee Side, 
where the men boiled the kettle. Peter Swasson, the cook, 
Peter Soque and Noel Vicair, my Indians; Barney Barnaby 
and his son, Dudley's two Indians ; for Raymond three canoes ; 
the scow and three horses; Robert Nelson, the scow owner 
and man in charge; the steersman and the man who rode one 
of the horses; one or two passengers who availed themselves 
of the opportunity to come part of the way up; our own im- 
pedimenta and a few stores for people living on the way con- 
stituted our crew and cargo. Logs were floating down the 
lower part of the river, but all was clear at Camp and for some 



246 ABRAHAM LANSING 

miles below. Ferguson had the Camp and its vicinage in ex- 
cellent order and had built us new stairs. 

Vegetation is probably three weeks behind us at home. 
The wild cherry at the corner of the Camp is just in flower. 
The woods are richly verdant with their half -grown leaves 
and the light green of the poplars and birches is emphasized 
by the dense and dark foliage of the conical spruces. Old 
Santa Claus over the way still keeps his sentry opposite. Mc- 
Andrew's camp stands unoccupied, solemn and picturesque, at 
Toad Brook. Peabody is here and tells us so continually, and 
the great multitude of unknown songsters makes the solitude 
eloquent. The air is cool with showers. 

June 10. 

We went into the woods on Sunday (yesterday) and had 
some hard climbing and walking. I found a little flower, an 
orchid, which I picked and then regretted not taking up the 
tiny plant, but could not find it. It was a steep side hill down 
which we descended through fallen trees and thick brush — 
very difficult going. The flower is so pretty and to me so rare 
that I thought it might be something important in the orchid 
line, and I have boxed it up in a small box and sent it to you 
for Chatfield to tell what it is. 

June 1 6. 
Entertained at dinner Dr. Mason from Brandy Brook and 
Florence and his chum, Mr. Heckscher, from Camp Beatrice 
at Grog Island. Dinner at 5 p. m. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 247 

It is most charming here this bright Sunday, and the ther- 
mometer on the porch is 72 degrees. There is not a cloud in 
the sunny sky and a pure fresh fern-scented breeze rustles the 
foliage and sweeps over the bright clear water. Nothing 
could be more perfect than the atmospheric conditions. The 
squaw-slippers are just in bloom. The ash trees have not put 
out their blossoms. They are beginning to show. The wild 
lily and a few white flowers are in bloom. Later come a vari- 
ety of colors and the beautiful wild rose. 



June 23. 
Did not leave Camp on account of an easterly rain, which 
kept up all day. Mr. McAndrew took luncheon with us, also 
a Mr. Welch on his way to Camp Harmony; also a Mr. Den- 
niston from Brandy Brook. All came by invitation and the 
luncheon lasted from about 1.30 o'clock to between 4 and 
5. We had pea soup and then some lamb hash with pota- 
toes and onions, served hot ; and baked beans, cold, with pork ; 
radishes from our own bed and then lobster, dressed and gar- 
nished with lettuce; and then more radishes with some excel- 
lent cheese, with Bent crackers and black coffee. 



June 29. 

To-morrow (Sunday) we go down to Brandy Brook to 

dinner and on Monday we expect Mr. Sweny's camp to 

luncheon and on Tuesday or Wednesday we break camp. 

Mr. McAndrew expects his family to-day. It is still pleasant 



248 ABRAHAM LANSING 

here, though growing warm. The fishing is over practically, 
but the flowers bloom and the birds sing and the shadows come 
and go and the Camp is breezy and aromatic. I have a wash- 
bowl full of wild roses, bud and bloom, upon the table, and a 
large bunch of moccasin flowers. They are very fragrant. 



1890 

Windsor Hotel, Montreal, June 5. 
We reached Montreal about 1 1 p. m. C. H. R. joined us at 
Saratoga, where we lunched — the most celebrated of all water- 
ing-places in America. A short distance south of Plattsburg 
we reached Bluff Point. Here has been erected the Champlain 
Hotel, to be opened the middle of this month, kept by the same 
man who keeps the "Ponce de Leon" at St. Augustine, Fla. 
The hotel was built by the railroad company at considerable 
expense and it is to be run on the most approved and expensive 
plan. We expect to leave here 8 a.m. to-morrow and reach 
Point Levi in the evening. Will reach Matapedia at 12.50 
a. m., arriving at Camp Saturday evening. 



June 15. 
We arrived safely at Camp in good season. It was a rainy 
day and the water in the river high; so high that we took a 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 249 

wagon, or what corresponds to a buggy, to Dee Side, where 
our scow, already laden with our stores, met us. The scow 
had not gone down to Matapedia, the stores having been sent 
on the day before. The Indians poled their canoes all the way 
up to Camp. 



June 25. 

Yesterday afternoon D. O. took a 38^ lb. fish, the largest 
one our Camp has ever taken, and I think the largest taken 
with fly on our river this season. 

I write on the porch of our Camp. There are a number on 
our river, but I really think not one which is so rustic and 
picturesque as this. To my eyes it is way beyond any on the 
river and so I think the general verdict of the river is. Mc- 
Andrew's is certainly more elaborate and very fine, but every 
one to his taste, and we are, if not so pretentious, at least self- 
satisfied and that is as much as mortal man can hope to be. 



June 29. 
You ask if I saw the Duke of Connaught. Do you remem- 
ber just before arriving at Matapedia, the station near Sir 
George Stephen's, a very fine and imposing place? Well, the 
Duke was Sir George's guest and was with him there. When 
we reached Matapedia, we found the depot hung with bunt- 
ing, placed there in honor of the Duke's arrival and not yet 
removed. His Grace had gone on with Sir George to his fish- 



250 ABRAHAM LANSING 

ing grounds. The Duke had not yet taken any salmon. Sir 
George's place is on the Matapedia River and his fishing is 
upon that stream. For a number of years the fishing on that 
river has been almost good for nothing ; owing to some unex- 
plained cause, salmon, once large and plenty there, are now 
seldom taken. Some say it is because the river has been so 
much "drifted," that is, netted with small nets. Some say that 
the constant jar of passing railroad trains, since the building 
of the railroad, disturbs them. Some say that some attempts 
made by Sir George to improve his fishing by obstructing the 
free passage of the fish in the river above him have resulted 
disastrously. Whatever the cause may be, the fact exists that 
very few salmon are taken. Efforts have been made to restock 
the river, but I think with poor success. 

Soon we will be leaving. The other fishermen on the river 
will be folding their tents, but the stream remains and the 
woods and the wild flowers and the Camp and sunshine over 
the green forests. They never fold their tents, excepting of 
course the verdure and the flowers. 



1891 

Ristigouche Salmon Club, Matapedia, 
May 30, 5.45 a.m. 
We reached here at midnight last night, and are just taking 
breakfast. We start up the river as soon after as possible, say 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 251 

7 o'clock. We are all well. Our Indians are here waiting 
for us at the station and are now ready to go up stream. The 
water in the river is too high to take a scow from here, so we 
go up as far as Dee Side by wagon, which is just above Sage's 
Camp. John Farnsworth met us at Plattsburg and gave us a 
splendid dinner. 



June 2. 
Dr. Rainsford brought up your letter yesterday. The Rev. 
Doctor had made his way from Matapedia that day and was 
en route for the river above and the fishing. The air is cool 
and not unpleasant; the river is high and swift; the buds are 
just coming into leaf. Yesterday was, of course, our first 
day's fishing. The train which brought us to Matapedia had 
a number of club men, some 18, among them William K. 
Vanderbilt, who extended the hospitalities of his special car 
to the fellow-members of the Club. Vanderbilt now owns 
Mr. Fearing's interest in Brandy Brook. He is there now. 
He had gone up in a canoe before we did, Saturday, and we 
saw him fishing in the stream as the scow passed up. 



June 13. 
The weather here is pleasant. Night before last we had a 
shower with thunder and lightning. It cleared the air and 
with some slight showers yesterday seems to have put out the 



252 ABRAHAM LANSING 

fires in the woods below and in our neighborhood, which made 
the air heavy with smoke. The fish are very scarce. 

On Sunday we went to the Chain of Rocks Brook, some- 
thing more than a mile. The woods were so tangled and 
pathless that we waded up the stream — a fatiguing journey — 
but the air was pleasant and the work gave us appetite for the 
Gaspe lobsters which our friend and neighbor McAndrew 
had sent over in our absence. The robins and peabody are 
here ; they are just nest-building. 

June 21. 

Dean Sage, who passed up yesterday with Messrs. Payne 

and Whitney and Mr. Hanna, all on a scow bound for above, 

just stopped here and will take this letter down with him. 

They had luncheon with us and we were a very pleasant party. 



June 23. 
Yours of the 18th reached me while on the river at Brandy 
Brook, where we were going to take dinner with Dr. and Mrs. 
Mason at 1.30 p. m. 

June 25. 
We expect Mrs. Sweny, Mr. and Mrs. McPherson and Ike 
Vanderpoel to lunch with us. On Tuesday next, June 29th, 
we will in all probability break camp and leave for Albany, so 
we will be back before "the glorious Fourth." 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 253 



1892 

June 26. 

The woods are brighter, if anything, than ever. The fishing 
is better than last year, but not equal to that of some other 
years. Some robins are nesting near the Camp and busy from 
the earliest light until late evening and they season their labor 
with many and many a song. The peabody pipes in with his 
shrill whistle and a multitude of other songsters swell the 
refrain. 

July 8. 
Letters received from home state that Capt. Sweny passed 
away the day after the day fixed for his departure for Camp. 
Poor Sweny! I can well imagine his longing for his camp 
on the Upsalquitch as he lay racking with pain and fever in 
his sick chamber. He will be missed on the river. 



1893 

June 20. 

All is well here in Camp. We had three salmon yesterday, 

two of which D. O. took — one of them a 29 lb. fish, a fine 

salmon. These two with the one which I took are the only 

fish taken by our Camp this year. Wind high this morning. 



254 ABRAHAM LANSING 

I will send moccasin plants as soon as they stop flowering. 

Mr. McAndrew is here. 

June 23. 

C. H. R. talks of going out the 2nd of July. My plan is to 
go with him. Yesterday the event was the arrival of Mrs. 
McA. and her sister. D. O. saw last Monday a family of the 
caribou on the beach above Camp— the stag and his mate 
and their two calves — the mother teaching the young to swim 
in the river. Red deer have also been seen here this spring, 
which is unusual. 

June 30. 
We are all going out on Monday next, the three of us 
together, and I will reach Albany D. V. about 7 p. m., July 
5th. I write to tell Louisa to have Mr. Evans send my horse 
and wagon for me. This morning a large cow caribou came 
down just behind me. Richard Mann, who lives just below, 
came up stream in his "dug-out," and called us to look at 
them, and she went back into the woods, leaving her calf, 
which Richard afterwards went ashore and captured. It was 
a pretty sight. 

July 3. 
We stopped at the camp of Mr. Sage, finding Mrs. Sage and 
Sarah and Betty. It was very pleasant and they seemed to be 
enjoying themselves. I found Sarah casting on the river for 
salmon as I came down. Called on Mr. and Mrs. McAndrew 
just before leaving. They have a beautiful camp. Mrs. McA. 
and her sister, Mrs. Evans, are there. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 255 

Albany, N. Y., July 6. 
I reached here last evening about 7 p. m., by the Herki- 
mer & Malone R. R., that is, Dr. Webb's new railroad through 
the Adirondacks to Montreal. At Herkimer we joined the 
Empire State Express for Albany and came on at the rate of 
nearly five miles in four minutes. 



1894 

Montreal, May 31. 

To-morrow I expect to leave for Matapedia. A message 
came to-day saying Mr. Sage would not be here to-night, 
owing to a death in the family. 



1895 

Windsor Hotel, Montreal, June 6. 
Reached Montreal on time last night. To-day we have 
been busy completing an outfit for Camp. At 2.30 p. m. the 
people of Montreal dedicated a statue to Sir John McDonald, 
the late Premier of the Dominion Government. The statue 
stands in the park upon which the Windsor faces and is a full- 
length figure of the celebrated Canadian statesman. The 
"unveiling occurred in the presence of a large crowd of people. 
The Governor General of Canada was present and other high 
dignitaries and speeches were made by prominent men. I 
send you a paper. 



256 ABRAHAM LANSING 

June 11. 
The Camp is as pleasant as ever. Mr. McAndrew came 
over from England, where he now lives, to occupy his Camp, 
and Mrs. McAndrew is expected here Thursday week. The 
foliage is fully out, the moccasin flower in bloom, and the 
season more advanced than I have ever seen it before on our 
arrival here. 

June 14. 
Dean Sage and his brother William, Charles T. Barney 
(who married Mary Whitney's sister) and a Mr. Dickerman, 
whom we met 25 years ago at the Oquossic Club in Maine, 
came in together from Camp Harmony and lunched and spent 
the rest of the day with us. We had a very pleasant party on 
the porch. 

June 23. 
Mr. Sage still remains at Camp Harmony. You know that 
Mr. Whitney (W. C.) and Col. Payne have purchased the 
waters and premises formerly belonging to Captain Sweny 
from Mrs. Sweny this last Winter; they have formed what 
they call the Camp Harmony Angling Club, combining with 
Sage and Lawrence, the owners of Camp Harmony, the fish- 
ing of the two properties. The Camp Harmony Angling Club, 
consisting of Sage, Lawrence, Whitney and Payne, now have 
some very excellent waters and as good fishing as any camp 
on the river. What we enjoy especially here is the seclusion. 
Excepting Mr. McAndrew of Camp Inverburne there are no 
inhabitants near us, and we are, as you know, surrounded by 
the woods. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 257 

Last Sunday we took a long stroll into the woods, starting 
in where we went up one day when you were here. We went 
far back into the woods, and while we did not actually see any 
larger animals than a red squirrel we undoubtedly heard the 
calls of a bear and her cubs near by. The sounds were so 
much like the voices of men that we were at first disposed to 
think them so, but sitting and waiting upon a log and lis- 
tening it became apparent that the noises were those of animals 
and those of bears. We were disappointed not to have had a 
look at them. Probably as the wind set in their direction from 
us, the keen noses of the cubs, who had strayed off from their 
dear mamma's presence, detected us and they set up a cry for 
maternal protection, to which cry she presently answered. 
We were in no peril, the party being abundantly provided with 
implements of warfare, and the disposition of the animal is to 
avoid encountering mankind. Of course the maternal instinct 
of the mother bear would cause her to resist and assail any 
attack upon her cubs. Hearing or smelling us, the family 
probably made off to a safe distance. 



1896 

Ristigouche Salmon Club, 
Matapedia, June 6 
Reached here about 1 p. m. yesterday, and go immedi- 
ately up the stream to Camp. Found the weather cool ; there 



258 ABRAHAM LANSING 

was a change from warmer yesterday afternoon. A fire in the 
Club House is altogether comfortable. 

Camp Albany, June 14. 
I have taken 18 fish, the largest 31 pounds, which I send out 
to-morrow to Judge Gray at Saratoga. The river is high and 
all the better for that. The sun is out and it is a most charm- 
ing Sunday. 

June 30. 
Last Saturday Dr. and Mrs. Seward Webb, who were at 
Brandy Brook with Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt, came up to fish 
the McAndrew waters opposite. Mrs. Webb landed in all 
nine fish. They took their midday meal with us by previous 
invitation, and went off seemingly well pleased with their visit. 
Mr. McAndrew offers his waters for sale. 

July 4. 
The Camp is now being dismantled by degrees, and on 
Monday afternoon it will be closed, when we leave it en route 
for home. This morning at 7 I went out to Hero Rapids, 
and took three fish — the largest 25 pounds, which I send to 
you. 



1898 

June 9. 

We have just arrived at Camp and have our hands full to 
get ready for sleeping to-night. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 259 

June 14. 
I send you by to-day's mail-boat a fine salmon in perfect 
condition and weighing 34 pounds. This is the largest fish I 
have ever sent to you. 

June 23. 

You ask how we found the Camp. Well, we reached here 
on the 9th at 3.15 p. m. and found the Camp opened and 
cleaned. This had been done, of course, by the Fergusons, 
and made ready for occupation. It looked very comfortable 
and cozy and the surroundings green and fresh. The grounds 
were somewhat grown up in places and they have had a trim- 
ming out since, which has improved both their appearance and 
comfort. Then in due time the Indians turned to and mowed 
the grass, and with the hammocks swinging, the tent put up, 
the lockers filled and all the innumerable collection of crockery 
and household goods set in such order as the circumstances 
admitted, the old Camp never looked more winsome to me. 

I have never found it more comfortable or congenial on the 
weatherbeaten porch by day, or by its bright wood fire at 
night, or when its eaves are dripping with the dew of the early 
morning than now. Now the birds and squirrels and a splen- 
did brood of partridges, but a few days old, are gradually be- 
coming more and more friendly with us. 

Yesterday we had smoked salmon for our breakfast, "mild- 
cured" they term it, and it seemed to me the best we ever had. 
You remember old Peter Soque, my Indian of all these years. 
Well, Peter was chief of the smoke-house and we thought he 
did the smoking so well that no one else could satisfy us in 



2 6o ABRAHAM LANSING 

that way. Old Peter is dead since last Christmas. He is a 
great loss to our camp and to me particularly, and I was very 
much attached to him. In his place I have Noel Vicaire, who 
has been with me during the same time as Peter, and was one 
of my "crew," as they term it. Naturally he came to Peter's 
place as his successor, and with him he has his son, a boy of 
1 8 years. I do not think any boat on the river has a more 
willing or complete crew than mine. But Noel has also suc- 
ceeded to the mantle of Peter as manager of the smoked- 
salmon-department, and he is doing himself great credit in 
that way. The trouble with this mild-cured salmon is that it 
will not keep in warm weather, and ice and moisture are un- 
congenial to it. Peter Swasson is still our cook, and Moise, who 
came up to us when but a child, is back again after the experi- 
ence of one year's absence, in which he seems to have realized 
the necessity for being a better boy. Moise is now as atten- 
tive to the preparation of smudges on any and all occasions 
and the bringing of water from the stream and the clearing 
up of papers and other litter and the helping of Peter in the 
kitchen as any one could wish and is a very excellent lad of 
all work. 

Mr. Robert Goelet now occupies his Camp (the McAndrew 
Camp) and is there with Mr. Stanford White, the architect. 
Last summer there were ladies, Mrs. White and others, with 
the party, but one season seems to have been enough for them. 
At all events there are no ladies at the Camp now. Mr. Goelet 
called on us the day of our arrival and also sent us a note ask- 
ing us to take dinner with him that evening, as our camp was 
not in order. We, of course, in due time returned the call and 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 261 

afterwards on one of those very windy days, when fishing 
was almost impossible, he and Mr. White came over and 
passed some time with us. Last Saturday they went down to 
the Club House for a few days, or we should have asked them 
to dine with us on Sunday. They returned yesterday after- 
noon, bringing with them a Mr. Riggs of New York, upon 
whom we must call, and possibly we may ask them over for 
dinner on Sunday, or luncheon earlier. At the Brandy Brook 
Camp are Mr. Hollins and Chester Griswold. 

We had a call from the Governor General of Canada— Lord 
Aberdeen— who passed perhaps half an hour on his way up 
stream to Cross Points, where he is now fishing. He seemed 
to be a very agreeable and pleasant-mannered gentleman, and 
was kind enough to ask us to call on him, if we were going up 
the stream as far as his Camp. His call was due, I apprehend, 
to the fact that D. O. had met his Lordship at dinner at 
Brandy Brook last summer, upon the invitation of Mr. Ken- 
nedy, and when D. O. went out he placed our fishing at the 
services of the Governor General and Mr. Kennedy. We had 
a very pleasant interview with him and he seemed particularly 
well pleased with the location and surroundings of Camp 
Albany. 

June 24. 

I wrote you yesterday. Your letter of the 20th came just 
as we were going to breakfast. It was brought up by Tom 
Metalic, who during the one summer when Peter Swasson 
could not come up served us as our cook. He now goes up 
and down the river with mail, etc., from Lord Aberdeen's 



262 ABRAHAM LANSING 

Camp at Cross Points, a beautiful stretch of water 12 or 15 
miles above us. Tom invariably stops at Camp Albany on his 
way up and down and is, like all the other Indians on the river, 
very fond of the old Camp. Poor Tom ! On his way down 
day before yesterday he reached Matapedia just in time to 
hear that his barn, with his pigs, his plough, his harrow, his 
harness and wagon and about all his agricultural possessions 
had been burned — the work, he thinks, of an incendiary. 
Tom, besides being a cook and a boatman, is a constable at the 
Mission. Drunkenness is a lamentable feature in Indian life, 
they tell us, and Tom, who is himself not addicted to that vice, 
has recently found it necessary to discipline some young men 
who are, whenever opportunity offers, hinc Mae lachrymae, as 
the Latins were in the habit of saying. 

June 28. 
On Sunday we had our two boats lashed together and were 
towed up the river as far as Indian House (17 miles above our 
Camp), further up stream than either of us had been before. 
The day was cloudy with occasional dashes of rain, which we 
did not mind at all with our rubber coats on and rubber 
blankets. We took our luncheon at Indian House in a drizzle 
of rain upon a convenient log on the beach — some ham sand- 
wiches and hard boiled eggs — and having started from Camp 
at 6.35 a. m., breakfasting at 5.45, we were able to enjoy it 
hugely. Having had this repast, we made a call upon Robert 
Goelet, who with Mr. Stanford White and Mr. Riggs are tar- 
rying there for a week, and were most hospitably received. 
At 2.50 p. m. our canoes having been unlashed, and our horse, 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 263 

which was ridden up in towing us by Alexander Ferguson 
(the bridegroom of last summer), and driver having been dis- 
missed to make their way back, we began to paddle back to 
Camp. Of course, our Indians went up with us and did the 
paddling. My Indians this year are, as I have already men- 
tioned, Noel, whom you know, and Larry Vicaire, Noel's son, 
named for old Larry who was Dudley's canoeman so many 
years and who was chosen to man the canoe of the Princess 
Louise when she fished here. The young Larry is about 18 
years of age and an excellent fellow and I am well pleased 
with my crew. It had taken us six hours and nine minutes to 
reach Indian House ; the average time made in towing canoes 
is about three miles per hour. We paddled back in two hours 
and forty-eight minutes, reaching Camp again at 5.30 p. m. 
Our trip up river was very interesting. Some 17 or 18 years 
since, when I first visited the river, we camped at a brook and 
salmon pool known as "Red Pine Mountain," some six or 
seven miles above here. From that camp at that time we had 
visited many of the pools above or about there, — Twin Brooks, 
Toms Brook, Pine Island, Cross Point and other places — all 
of which it was most pleasant to see again; but we had never 
reached Indian House, the most celebrated point of the river, 
at least up stream. At Toms Brook I had first seen a salmon 
leap from the water, and at Cross Point I had taken my first 
salmon. Our day's experience was a rare and pleasant one. 

I had almost said that I was sorry to have seen Indian 
House; it is so picturesque and beautiful there in its wildness, 
and the winds and turns of the river among the surrounding 
hills, and its extended outlooks in all directions. The water 



264 ABRAHAM LANSING 

there is 50 feet in depth in places. There is a fine house there, 
which now belongs to the Club; it was built by Mr. Breeze, 
"Jimmy Breeze," of New York, and is well done. He sold it, 
after the panic a few years ago and the disaster in Cordage 
Stock, to the Club for $35,000; I think that was the figure. It 
is well worth that sum as prices go for fishing here and would 
be marketable, I should say, at a considerably larger sum. 
Indian House was the intended end of our journey and of 
course we did not venture to go above in one day, but there 
are camps and pools many above, — viz. : Patapedia, Devil's 
Half Acre, Little Cross Point, etc.,— away up to the mouth of 
the Kedgewick. Some four miles above Indian House Wil- 
liam K. Vanderbilt has his camp. 

Cross Point is so called because there is there what in the 
Adirondacks we used to term an ox-bow. Perhaps you re- 
member one which we crossed on Racket River. As you 
travel the stream there is a bend or loop in it. The distance 
around the loop is more than a mile, but the distance across 
the land is very little, hence cross or across point. To mark 
the portage many years ago some one put a stick across a pole 
and ever since a cross has marked it. If the wind or snow 
destroys or interferes with it, straightway it is put up again. 
But the rocky and heavily wooded hills rise there high above 
the river and, while the distance across the tops is little, the 
way up to the top is steep and difficult, and travelers make 
their way by the stream and do not attempt to carry over on 
the Racket with a somewhat similar loop. The boats are car- 
ried on the level ground and a few feet into the river on the 
other side. 



THE LOG BOOK OF CAMP ALBANY 265 

Camp Albany, 
Ristigouche River, June 22, 1908. 
Here, in the places for so many summers made glad by his 
presence and now always dear for his memory, Abraham Lan- 
sing is held high in honor by all who knew him, is held revered 
and loved in the remembrance of those who knew him well. 
Nowhere was he more his varied self than amid the living for- 
ests which he reverenced and on the rushing waters which he 
thoughtfully and wisely loved. Upon this spot he lavished 
that great love of nature which gave him such happiness in 
its revelations and which shone so purely in the utterances ot 
his lips and in the running of his facile pen. Here, in his 
communings with wild woods and waters, he was wont to 
give expression to the deep sentiments of his own noble nature 
and to find play for recollections of the thoughts and descrip- 
tions of the great authors with whose works he was so fa- 
miliar. Himself a writer of original and intellectual verse, he 
took pleasure in quoting, to supplement his own poetic fancies, 
those students of nature whose 

footsteps echo 
Down the corridors of time. 

A philosopher, he loved to repeat here in the wilderness the 
maxims and the words of wisdom of ancient and modern 
sages whose philosophy served to adorn the daily walks of his 
own mental being. 

In this camp, of many a quaint and curious feature, either 
due to his suggestion or in the construction of which he aided, 
and a great and integral part of which he was, all things bear 



266 ABRAHAM LANSING 

the impress of his individuality or are relics of his occupation. 
His dictionary still lies upon the shelf; his favorite set of 
Shakespeare rests upon the table; his own great salmon rod 
hangs along the wall ; and now below it hangs his portrait, the 
gift in later years of faithful love, set in its place by the hands 
of revering friendship. 

Camp Albany would earnestly offer this memory of him as 
a fisher with the fly: his deeply cogitated knowledge of the 
ways of the salmon he united with shrewd reasoning on the 
natural causes affecting them; the color of the water, the 
shadow of the cloud, the depth of the pool, determined the se- 
lection and size of his fly; then, with easy, though long- 
studied, skill with the rod — skill which no fisherman on the 
river could hope to surpass — he would bring all his piscatorial 
lore into successful practice. To watch his tall, graceful form 
while casting on the river was to see the exemplar of the ac- 
complished fisherman ; the man, the rod, the line were together 
but the extension and the completion of artistic and practical 
perfection. 

Grave and dignified, yet genial; habitually courteous; by 
birth and breeding a gentleman, by education a scholar, by in- 
spiration a poet, he adorned and elevated the social centers 
wherein he moved. A soul of high meditation and resolve, 
a heart of courage and honor, an intellect broad, analytic and 
dispassionately just; charitable in thought and deed, excep- 
tional in the purity and nobility of the example he set before 
his fellow men, Abraham Lansing shed moral and intellectual 
benefit upon all who came within his influence. 

Charles H. Raymond. 



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